Can a Kawasaki ZX-14R or Suzuki Hayabusa out-drag a Tesla Model S Plaid?

We love a good drag race here at Visordown - both on track and involving RuPaul - but while the new UK series of the latter begins this week, right now we’re talking about the pinned throttle, sticky tyre, smoke belching kind of speed monsters here.

Well, actually, that description accounts for only two of the three vehicles here being put to the ‘Need for Speed’ test as American motoring publication Edmunds set up a curious premise of motorcycle vs car for a very entertaining straight-line duel.

We’ve seen numerous ‘two takes on four wheels’ battles since the dawn of time (well, maybe the dawn of the combustion engine) but here Edmunds it pitting two of most powerful production motorcycles on sale - the Suzuki Hayabusa and Kawasaki ZX-14R - against a modest-looking Tesla Model S, which of course doesn’t have a fossil fuel-gulping powerplant as its heart.

Now before you say you’ve seen Tesla vs Motorcycle battles plenty of times, this is different in that the car in question is the blandly-titled but secret-hiding Tesla Model S Plaid.

This is the BMW M Performance-Mercedes-AMG-Audi RS’ of Teslas with an extraordinary 735kW power unit lurking underneath, generating the equivalent of 1020bhp (and no, that isn’t a typo). With linear torque, the Model S Plaid hits 62mph in just two seconds, making it something of a motorcycle with four wheels and a frame… and seats and luxury kit for good measure.

OK, so with that premise we were invested by Edmunds’ pitch of the Tesla against the latest generation Hayabusa, before - and we won’t deliver a spoiler - switching to the Kawasaki in the hope of a more definitive answer of whether car or bike is quicker.

Give it a watch, it’s an entertaining way to kill some time at least… just be warned the result may irk you.