Four wheels better than two (says science)

Every so often a car, or bike magazine runs a car-versus-bike test, thinking they've discovered the genre, and spreads massive confusion.  If it's published in a car mag ... the car wins.  Bike mag ... bike wins.  Simple.

Except the results are always cooked and avoid the laws of physics.

Motor Cycle News is the latest offender, pitting an Aprilia RSV4 Factory against a Nissan GT-R at new track day venue Blyton Park.

Here's my considered letter (which, of course they didn't publish).

24 October, 2011

Dear Sir,

You asked if it was a fair fight between the Aprilia RSV4 Factory and the Nissan GT-R in your car-versus-bike test at Blyton Park.  I’d say … not really.

Simple physics – and common sense - tells you that four wheels firmly planted on the ground will always give a car vastly superior grip, especially in corners.

Just look at race track lap records.  I think Blyton’s is 60.1seconds for a road car … comfortably inside the 1 min 10.87 you achieved on the Aprilia.  But Blyton is very short and so tenders to favour a bike’s point and squirt characteristics.  How about Cadwell Park, where a relatively cheap road-legal Radical (British by the way) has achieved a 1min 22.50 sec lap? That well inside Leon Haslam’s 1min 33.67 time on a Ducati 999.

I know you can argue about this till kingdom come – and great fun it is too – but a motorcycle’s built-in power-to-weight advantage isn’t enough to win against all that rubber a car can plant on the track.

PS: I’d rather be on the Aprilia, by the way.

Chris Myers