Long term update: Yamaha R1 vs Porsche GT3 RS

We’ve done loads of car v bike shootouts and the results are usually the same: the bike wins. But I thought this match-up would be different. This is a very special car – a Porsche 911. Some would dismiss the 911 as a glorified VW Beetle, but few Beetles will do close to 200mph and do 0-60 in three-and-a-bit seconds.

This version is a GT3 RS 4.0. Only 600 were built and it has almost mythical status in the car world. It’s one of the fastest Porsche road cars to lap the Nürburgring, scorching round in a time of 7 minutes 27 seconds. The GT3 RS 4.0 makes big power, weighs little (for a car) and comes with titanium conrods and exhaust, a carbon fibre bonnet, airbox, seats and spoiler, plastic rear windows, semi-slick tyres and dynamic engine mounts to help stop its natural tendency to swap ends when you lift off the throttle.

Bikes usually win these tests, but compare this car’s stats with the R1 and the Porsche might actually have an advantage today. When we performance tested the R1 at Bruntingthorpe earlier in the year it ‘only’ did 0-60mph in 3.6 seconds and a top speed of 176mph, but that was in a screaming headwind. That’s considerably slower than the Porsche

Here at Rockingham the plan is to datalog flat-out laps in the R1 and GT3 4.0 RS and record some chin-scratchingly interesting data. But there’s a problem: it quickly becomes clear there’s no race to be had.

The car simply can’t accelerate off the corners anywhere as quickly as the bike. It has to steer through Rockingham’s chicanes, too, while the slimmer bike can just straightline them. Follow the car and it’s like you’re on a warm-up lap. Pull the pin on the R1 and the GT3 RS disappears in the mirrors. God knows where car firms get their performance figures from (and the car mags are happy to swallow them), but they don’t bear much relation to reality.

The Yamaha was so much quicker than the Porsche that we didn’t need to strap the datalogger on. Suffice to say, the R1 will keep up with a fast Porsche…without even trying.