For decades, high-performance super sports bikes could easily out-accelerate even the most powerful and expensive supercars, but with the auto industry’s ongoing horsepower wars, things have started to change.
The superior power-to-weight ratios of motorcycles have always helped them in a straight line. However, for the better part of two decades, horsepower figures from the most potent of super sports bikes haven’t increased much beyond 200 hp (with some exceptions). As such, cars have started to close the gap.
Read: 2024 BMW M5 Flaunts Its Edgier Design, Will Pack Plug-In Hybrid Power
To showcase just how much that performance gap has been closed, Carwow recently pitted a BMW M5 CS against a BMW M 1000 RR for a series of tests. For those that don’t know, the M5 CS is the fastest-accelerating car in BMW’s current range, delivering 626 hp from its 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8, while the M 1000 RR is its quickest bike.
Outfitted with a 999 cc inline-four engine, the bike pumps out 212 hp and 83 lb-ft (113 Nm) of torque, a serious amount of grunt when you consider that it weighs just 192 kg (423 lbs) compared to the 1,825 kg (4,023 lbs) of the car.
In the first race, the two get off the line at very similar rates but as the speeds start to increase, the M 1000 RR pulls ahead and takes an easy win. It is a similar story in the second race with the bike running the quarter-mile in 10.3 seconds compared to the 11.0 seconds required by the M5 CS.
The motorcycle also proves to be too much for the car in a rolling race but the sports sedan did manage to win in the braking test. Nevertheless, the M5 CS performs valiantly given its size.