Jeep Trackhawk Drag Races Suzuki Hayabusa To An Odd Result

This video catches a very confusing racing between a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and a Suzuki GSX-1300R Hayabusa. The 'Busa has a reputation as a two-wheeled widowmaker that's capable of rapid acceleration and a near-200-mile-per-hour top speed straight from the factory. This one can't muster anywhere near the bike's famed performance.

At the start, this looks like it should be a good race. The Jeep appears stock, but the 6.2-liter supercharged V8 making 707 horsepower (527 kilowatts) and 645 pound-feet (875 Newton-meters) of torque can get the big SUV to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour) in just 3.5 seconds. The factory also claims the Trackhawk can cover the quarter mile in 11.6 seconds, and this one is only a few tenths of a second away from that time.

This Hayabusa appears to be a first-generation example available from 1999 to 2007. From the factory, its 1.3-liter four-cylinder produces 173 hp (129 kW). However, this one wears stickers from aftermarket shops like Summit Racing and Jeg's. The exhaust wears the Yoshimura emblem, a company famous for making pipes for motorcycles. These tweaks suggest this 'Busa should be even more potent than stock.

When the lights turn green, there's a big surprise, though. The Trackhawk rockets off the line, but the Hayabusa putters slowly ahead. The bike never catches up, either. The cycle finishes the quarter mile going 121.5 mph (196 kph), and the Jeep hits 179.3 mph (289 mph).

We reached out to the motorcycle experts and our partners at RideApart.com to figure out what's happening here. After laughing at the Hayabusa's miserable performance, their theory is that the rider might accidentally have the bike in third gear, which also explains why it seems to speed up farther down the track. "If you dump the clutch on those things it's hard to keep the front on the pavement, and he takes off like my KLR [a dual-sport motorcycle]."