The boys over at Hot Rod magazine have a nice little competition to find the quickest street machine. The problem with these kinds of competitions is usually enforcing what qualifies, but in their case street legal is only the beginning, you have to be able to actually survive a long road trip from drag strip to drag strip and compete with the parts you carry in or tow behind your car. That’s a neat idea. How about motorcycles, is anyone doing this?
Even stock bikes are pretty darned quick these days, quite a few can get into the nines. Not long ago we talked about the Hayabusa that was uncrated brand new, and seven hours later, made a pass in the eights. Still streetable, too, as far as I could tell.
These days you see a lot of guys on the street with extended swingarms, turbos, nitrous, big bore kits, just about everything needed to go fast, but could they survive a long road trip, too? Single purpose, limited use bikes might be quick but not really good for that two hundred mile trip to the next strip where you face off against the clock, only to do it again the next day.
Cars and trucks are doing this more often, Gale Banks has his world speed record diesel pickup. He towed his own parts to Bonneville, swapped a few parts like tires, ran 222mph, packed up and drove home. Now that’s a fast street machine. What could a bike do?
Terry Kizer, Mr. Turbo, has a nice bunch of turbo kits and he was making big numbers on the ZX-11 in the early 90’s and Sport Rider had one up to 215mph and it was a street bike. I don’t remember what the ETs were but they were pretty impressive, too. Think what 10 years of technical improvement should produce.
One caution though, how would you do this safely? An extreme performance motorcycle would make ridiculous numbers, both ET and top speed so the riders would have to be up to it. Building the bike is one thing, riding something that fast is another matter. Would be a neat competition though, don’t you think?
sigint says
I’m always curious about the top speed of production motorcycles even when they’re tweaked. I mean, how fast do MotoGP bikes go compared to these bikes. In “Faster” it says that the bikes for 2004 reached 215mph. Shouldn’t the bikes for MotoGP be the fastest or at least faster than a modded streetbike? Even the people making the move from AMA superbike say the MotoGP bikes are faster (scary to quote some).
Also, it said the Ducati were really powerful but that really didn’t mean much if it wasn’t properly applied to the road (otherwise you just spin). Have these production bikes figured it out what the factory racing groups couldn’t?
This makes me wonder if MotoGP is reaching it’s peak in terms of getting more speed out.
todd says
single purpose bikes like MotoGP and other track bikes don’t really have a top speed. They are geared for each track. A drag bike that reaches into the 9’s is geared to do just that, not top speed as it relies mainly on accelleration. Bonneville bikes are geared solely for top speed and need to be towed up to 50 mph just to be able to start accellerating on its own. That would tend to make things difficult at stop lights…
The nice thing with testing a street legal bike for this competition is that it never has to be tested for emissions levels or even equipment. To remain “street legal” cars and trucks need to maintain all of their EPA components and also pass the emissions limits for that vehicle (though apparently they can be disabled for this event as long as they can be put back on for the trip home). One benefit cars have though is low drag -low wind resistance-, quite lower than any motorcycle. Wind resistance is the greatest factor at high speeds and no stock motorcycle with stock bodywork and rider will ever be able to go faster than a car.
-todd
aaron says
I’ll agree and disagree with todd here. The agreeing part goes:
the top speed of a race car or bike is as fast as the circuit will allow. the gearing and aerodynamic components are changed from track to track. top speed of a le mans racer was 206.5 mph in 2003, in the late 80’s it was 251.1! (figures from http://www.mulsannescorner.com/ ) rule changes changes are probably responsible for some of the difference, the biggest change being 2 chicanes on the 3.5 mile mulsanne straight. this change in track layout cut 40+mph off the top speed of the cars. street cars/bikes are maxed out on closed highways or runways, meaning they are given 2-3 more miles to get up to their top speed and taller gearing can be used. also the aero of a hayabusa (for example) is much slicker than a GSV-R because of different missions for each bike.
the disagreeing part is: a bike typically has an aero advantage because the frontal area in much smaller. while the Cd is higher, the low area that it applies to will more than make up for the difference. examples are 180hp=193mph (hayabusa), 115hp=165mph (600 class) 455hp=230mph (zx11 turbo) and 500(ish)hp= 253.152 mph(!!!!) in a stock chassis hayabusa turbo on the salt flats (from http://www.aperaceparts.com/news.html)
the big reason bikes have problems matching car top speeds? most bikes come in at under 15 grand (vs 1 mil plus for the big boys like mclarens and bugattis) and there is no room to stick an 8 liter 16 cylinder quad turbo engine into a hayabusa! when bikes can find equivilent horsepower, cars can’t compete! (streamliners excluded)
sigint says
Todd:
Thanks!
So would it be safe to say that MotoGP bikes are the pinnacle of racing technology in terms of speed and acceleration?
todd says
Well put aaron, there isn’t as much room for an engine as you get in a car, definitely. i was not aware that the lower frontal area would offset the higher total Cd.
Sigint, it would not be safe to say that a motoGP bike is the fastest or quickest. As I said, those bikes are built for their intended purpose. In that sense, yes, they are the pinnacle of technology for speed and accelleration. If you didn’t have to worry about getting through the corner I’m sure a drag bike would blow the other bikes away, at least for a 1/4 mile or so. If the rules allowed other displacements or technology (like 2-stroke) you could most likely surpass the current GP bikes in levels of performance.
CJ (siege) says
anyone curious about numbers or tech info, or if your a gen-3 ninja fan like me should check out the October ’95 issue of Motorcyclist, that was the issue that featured an article on the ZX-11, and a side article on Terry Kizers turbo/nitrous ZX-11. The last update i saw on that particular bike he had made it to 495.somthing horsepower, and unleashed a 9.27 @ 143 mph drag strip run. I’m curious to see what the next frankenstein to come out of his garrage is capable of.
ryan seavey says
Terry Kizer didnt ride his Turbo ZX-11 AND THE BIKE was beaten that year riden by Mr.motorcycle/honda yamaha in Sport Rider Magazine by an old out of date Yamaha FJ 1100 IN THE 1/4 MILE..