In case you’ve missed it, motorcycle racer Guy Martin and former Formula One driver David Coulthard have been competing in head-to-head challenges to examine the differences in science and technology between their two sports. It’s been a lot of fun—but none more so than the slalom challenge.
I can’t say I ever really expected to see a motorcycle and an F1 car compete against one another to set a faster time on a slalom test Martin and Coulthard threw together themselves.
Yeah, this head-to-head is definitely a little skewed in favor of the motorcycle—but the main thing to note is how deftly the F1 car is able to maneuver the course despite its extra length and weight:
That shit is cool. Martin is riding a Tyco BMW Superbike, which weighs about 375 lbs, according to Tyco’s website. By contrast, Coulthard’s Red Bull RB8 F1 engine alone weighs 204 lbs. Despite the discrepancies, Coulthard was still only a mere three seconds off Martin’s pace.
It’s hard to really declare a winner in a contest as unevenly matched as this one, but it is just really freakin’ cool to watch how smoothly both of these machines can move.