Drift battle: Car versus Motorcycle

What happens when you pit a four time dirt track champion Karl Maier on a speedway bike against a BMW M235i with M Performance parts...pure drifting pleasure. This out-of-the-ordinary matchup was done on the Landshut/Ellermühle speedway stadium at the AC Landshut club which is almost a 400-metre-long track for the drifting contest. The respective starting points for the driver and rider could not have been more different.

 

 

The Car

 

At the heart of the BMW M235i M Performance sits a 3.0 litre BMW TwinPower Turbo petrol engine pumping out 326bhp of maximum power and a peak torque rating of 450 Nm. The vehicle has DIN weight of 1,470 kilograms and measures almost 4.5 metres in length. Equipped with original M Performance Parts and a 50:50 weight distribution, the BMW M235i provided the perfect recipe for consistent drifts through the approximately 12-metre-wide corners. In June 2014 the car’s BMW TwinPower Turbo six-cylinder engine was crowned “Engine of the Year”.

 

 

The Motorcycle

 

The speedway motorcycle that Karl is riding has an air-cooled 500cc single-cylinder engine that produces 80bhp of maximum power. It weighs at 80 kilograms (as per speedway regulations) and has just one gear and has no brakes. The specially designed methanol-fuelled machine has been specifically built for speedway track use.

 

 

Both the driver and the rider were to fulfil on common goal, drift around the 400 metre track for five hours. Though there is a huge difference between both the machines, they succeeded in achieveing their goal. This exercise purely demonstrates the capability of the BMW M235i M Performance on a dirt track rather than the usual asphalt surface.

 

 

Even the 5 hours of uninterrupted drifting session could not satisfy Karl Maier’s lust for drifting and the former world champion concluded the day with a few sideways laps special BMW S1000RR shod with studded tyres. This RR weighed in at about a little over 200 kilograms with a full tank of fuel on board and develops a power output of 193bhp.

 

 

The sheer directional stability, outstanding handling characteristics and steering communication of the S1000RR allowed Maier to drift his way across the speedway track.