Performance is a term close to the heart of all BMW enthusiasts. Yet it ‘s also a word that can mean a lot of different things depending on the context. Performance around a road coarse is a different animal than performance on the drag strip. So when you take three vehicles out of their obvious element and pit them against each other a rainy drag strip, what happens? That ‘s exactly what Autocar wanted to find out.

Which is faster? A pared-down, bare knuckle track toy, a state-of-the-art superbike or a front-running rallycross car? Steve Sutcliffe referees the match between an Ariel Atom V8, a BMW HP4 superbike and a top Citroen DS3 rallycross contender in the ultimate quarter-mile showdown.

Given that you ‘re seeing this here in BimmerFile, you ‘ve probably already guessed at the outcome. I won ‘t spoil it for you, but let ‘s just say that when you have a ridiculous power to weight ratio and gearing that lets you do 100 mph in first, you ‘re gonna be tough to catch. That ‘s what these two cars were up against in the BMW HP4.

Source: Autocar