Quote:
Originally Posted by old greg
At high speeds they do. If you have a whole lot of force and a whole lot of weight, an increase in aero drag makes less of an impact on acceleration than if you had very little force and very little weight.
At low speeds power divided by weight is king, at high speeds drag plays a greater and greater role. For example Bonneville streamliners tend to be quite heavy and needlessly overbuilt, and that's before you fill the huge coolant tanks (no radiators). Sportbikes have excellent power to weight ratios so they'll accelerate like crazy at low-ish speeds, but a big hp car (with a worse power to weight ratio) will outrun one in a highway race.
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Yes, you're right. Sportbikes will outrun most cars at under 120mph, but cars will start to pick up after that because weight is also the matter. That's the reason why Suzuki and Kawasaki create a big bulky looking Hayabusa and Ninja ZX 13-14R, respectively, to be the motorcycle version of speed demon instead of handsome looking sportbikes. I was just comparing
street cars and sportcar which more power and less weight is all the matter.