It’s an age-old rivalry—cars versus bikes; two wheels versus four. Throughout the years, manufacturers have been continuously pushing the envelope of performance, and now, we get to witness what could possibly be two of the most performance-oriented production vehicles on the market today, slugging it out in a good old fashioned drag race.
Leave it to none other than Mat Watson of Carwow to bring us yet another epic drag race. He’s been doing this for literally years now, and quite frankly, we just can’t get enough.
So, what do we have on the chopping block today? Well, it’s none other than the all-new Ducati Panigale V4 S and the Audi E-Tron GT RS—two vehicles that sit at the very top of their respective manufacturers’ catalogs when it comes to performance. So yeah, the Panigale V4 S is currently the fastest production Ducati you can buy. And likewise, the all-electric RS is the fastest Audi currently on sale.
Naturally, it’s only human nature to want to figure out which one is faster, right?
With both vehicles lined up at the start, it was clear that the Audi had the traction advantage, as well as the benefit of instantaneous torque delivery to all four wheels. But in terms of sheer numbers, the Ducati had more than double the power-to-weight advantage, even with the rider on board.
Speaking of the rider, it just so happened to be Alessandro Valia, the lead test and development rider for Ducati. So yes, this dude knows a thing or two about piloting cutting-edge superbikes.
The first race—which was actually just a warm up round—went exactly the way Mat would’ve wanted every succeeding race to go, with the RS absolutely smoking the V4 S off the line all the way through the finish. As it would turn out, Alessandro was still dialing in the bike’s complex settings, and when it was actually time to race, well, let’s just say the tables turned quite a bit.
As expected, the RS had the better launch, sending more than 900 ponies through all four wheels and sticking the launch. But as the Ducati built up the revs and gained momentum, it slingshotted its way past the RS in two out of the three runs, earning it the victory for the standing quarter-mile.
Up next was a roll race—something that’s more likely to happen in the real world when you’re cruising on the freeway (not that we condone any type of racing on public roads). And again, the Ducati obliterated the RS, making quick work of the revs and zooming past the electric car like it was standing still. It was only when Mat told Alessandro not to downshift and leave it in third gear did the RS manage to take the win—but seriously, who’d be stupid enough not to downshift when challenged to a race?
So clearly, the Ducati was the victor here.
Even in the brake test towards the end of the video, the Ducati impressed everyone. High-performance cars like the Audi RS have some of the best brakes known to man, and even then, the Ducati managed to out-brake the Audi RS stopping a foot or two behind the car during the first test.
And perhaps even more interestingly, Ducati has dialed in its electronics to out-brake even a seasoned superbike racer, as when Alessandro disabled the stability control, he stopped further ahead than he did when the system was enabled. Consider my mind completely blown.
Clearly, the biggest takeaway from this drag race is that motorcycles are absolutely crazy, and are often severely underestimated by their four-wheeled counterparts. Being a car guy long before I was a motorcycle guy, I was once guilty of this, not thinking much of bikes with around 50 or 60 horsepower. Little did I know that power-to-weight meant so much more than sheer horsepower figures, and my first time riding a moderately performance-oriented motorcycle opened my eyes in an instant.
And of course, as Mat Watson said at the start of the video, pretty much anyone can launch a high-performance electric car like the Audi RS. But it takes some serious skill to launch a 216-horsepower motorcycle—or any motorcycle for that matter. Riding even the simplest, most modest motorcycle is so much more involved and engaging than driving even the fanciest hypercar—or it is, at least for me. And that’s why if you were to ask me whether I’d take a car or a bike, 10 times out of 10 my answer would be the bike.
