Watch a Tesla Model S Plaid Smoke a Hayabusa in a Drag Race

The quickest production motorcycles in the world can keep up, but not quite beat the Plaid.

byPeter Holderith|
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The Tesla Model S Plaid is a seriously quick car. It is, after all, the quickest production sedan to ever go on sale, and we recently experienced the madness ourselves. It can do zero to 60 in right around two seconds, according to Tesla. Now, thanks to a video by Edmunds, we also know that it's quick enough to beat the incredibly powerful 2022 Suzuki Hayabusa and 2021 Kawasaki ZX-14R motorcycles.

Edmunds brought the Tesla and two bikes to Willow Springs International Motorsports Park to see which would come out on top in a series of drag races. Why the bikes? Well, as Edmunds' Carlos Lago explains, there aren't any stock four-wheeled vehicles that can really keep up with the Model S Plaid. The bikes, on the other hand, can get close.

Edmunds via YouTube

The bikes' specifications are impressive—as they should be for the quickest motorcycles on the planet. Packing 188 horsepower and weighing just 582 pounds, the Hayabusa is powered by a 1.3-liter inline-four engine that revs all the way to 11,000 rpm. Similarly, the 593-pound Kawasaki has a 1.4-liter inline-four that also makes power at screaming engine speeds: 208 hp at 9,800 rpm.

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Despite their impressive specs, both can really only match the Tesla—and just barely. The Hayabusa manages to pull ahead in one of the roll races but only because it briefly jumped the start. In all of the other runs, despite having a considerably better power-to-weight ratio, the Hayabusa can't pull ahead.

The ZX-14R does a little better, but in a nutshell, nothing can beat the Tesla's launch. The Kawasaki is at least able to pace the Plaid with a rolling start, but really it's the way the two different drivetrains deliver power that makes the difference. The Tesla's power delivery is much more constant and it isn't as peaky as the bikes. There are also obviously no gears to change in the Tesla, which certainly helps.

These runs were not timed, but Edmunds claims it previously recorded the Model S Plaid completing a quarter-mile in just 9.4 seconds at 150.8 mph. That means these bikes are definitely in that range, especially the Kawasaki. That's seriously fast for any vehicle. And even though these bikes didn't outright crush the Tesla, they're still extremely fast and obviously extremely dangerous.

Got a tip or question for the author? You can reach them here: peter@thedrive.com

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