Archived Comparison
From the December 1996 Issue of Car and DriverTESTED
What's faster—cars or motorcycles? Among serious motorheads, arguments about that have raged since 1885, when Gottlieb Daimler invented the world's first motorcycle powered by an internal-combustion engine and Karl Benz invented the similarly powered car.
In pure acceleration, motorcycles have been leaving cars in the dust for a long time. Back in 1973, the then-new Kawasaki Z-1, with its muscular and refined four-cylinder 903cc engine, could blur through the quarter-mile in 12.6 seconds with a terminal speed of 106 mph. Today, only the most powerful cars, such as the Porsche 911 Turbo and the Dodge Viper GTS, can trip the lights in a shorter interval. Which does them no good at all since you need both hands to count the modern motorcycles that are capable of 10-second quarters.
Speed on the road or on a track, however, demands more than just slingshot acceleration. A fast vehicle must also keep pulling to a high top speed, be able to stop repeatedly in a short distance with excellent control, and corner rapidly enough so that it isn't always dissipating hard-won speed.
Even more critical is how easily the person in the saddle can segue from brake-scorching deceleration to tire-howling cornering to traction-threatening acceleration. Despite the motorcycle's advantage in pure acceleration, evidence suggests that, in the broad spectrum of performance, cars have their merits.
A few years ago, for example, I wrote a column (C/D, September 1993) about keeping up with a rapidly ridden Suzuki GSX-R750 on winding Angeles Crest Highway outside of Los Angeles while driving a BMW 740i sedan laden with four adults and a week's luggage.
That was not a fluke. Back in August 1977, then Car and Driver executive editor Steve Thompson, who was as proficient on two wheels as he was on four, found that he could circulate Lime Rock quicker in a Pontiac Trans Am than on a Kawasaki KZ1000 (1 minute and 11.9 seconds vs. the bike's 1:12.5).
What would the result be in 1996? To find out, we called our pals at Cycle World and proposed a shootout. We would arrive on the West Coast with a new Dodge Viper GTS coupe for a contest of speed at Willow Springs raceway and also on Angeles Crest Highway with the motorcycle of their nomination ridden by the staffer of their choice. They answered the challenge by sending CW executive editor Brian Catterson with a 1997 Yamaha YZF1000R, the newest sport bike from the company that also crafts fine pianos and helps Ford design and build Taurus SHO powerplants.
