Watch Tesla Model 3 Performance Blow Away This Yamaha R6 Motorcycle

4 years, 3 months ago - 5 August 2020, InsideEVs
Watch Tesla Model 3 Performance Blow Away This Yamaha R6 Motorcycle
Even this impressive motorcycle can't match the pace of the Model 3.

A Yamaha R6 motorcycle meets a Tesla Model 3 Performance at the drag strip. You'd figure the motorcycle will dominate this drag race, but in fact, it's the Tesla that wins with ease.

We've now seen the Model 3 Performance beats some serious competition. It recently took down a Corvette C8, crushed a supercharged Ford Mustang, beat a Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and nearly matched a 1,200 horsepower Nissan GT-R.

However, we've yet to see a Model 3 Performance up against a proper sportbike like the Yamaha R6, so we were more than a bit surprised by the result of this race. If you recall, a Model 3 did get beaten by a Harley-Davidson Livewire electric motorcycle, so we thought for sure this R6 would beat it too. It did not.

Unfortunately, we don't know the particular year of the sportbike seen in the video, so we're not exactly certain of it specs. The only bit of info we have to go on is this brief video description:

Racing my Model 3 Performance vs a Yamaha R6 sportbike.

Off to Wikipedia for some info on the R6 then:

The YZF-R6 was introduced in 1999 as the supersport version of YZF-R1 superbike, and as a companion to the more street-oriented YZF600R sport bike which continued to be sold alongside the R6. The motorcycle featured Yamaha's completely new engine design capable of producing over 108 hp (81 kW) while stationary. The R6 was the world's first 600cc production four-stroke motorcycle producing over 100 hp (75 kW) in stock form.

In 2006, Yamaha advertised that the R6 had a redline of 17,500 rpm. This is 2,000 rpm higher than the previous R6 model and was the highest tachometer redline of any 2006 production four-stroke motorcycle engine.

That all sounds quite impressive, but what are the specs? We've listed those below for the various versions (dependent upon model year) of the R6 and we must admit that the numbers are pretty insane:

Performance

0 to 60 mph 2.8 to 3.35 seconds

1⁄4 mile

10.97 @ 201.46 km/h (125.18 mph)
10.97 @ 204.56 km/h (127.11 mph)
10.80 sec. @ 206.49 km/h (128.31 mph)
10.67 sec. @ 210.49 km/h (130.79 mph)

Top speed

253–257 km/h (157–160 mph)
253 km/h (157 mph)
260 km/h (160 mph)

With numbers like that, you'd expect the bike to win. However, the Model 3 is super easy to launch off the line and it provides consistent times, whereas a sportbike requires tremendous skill to get off the line and down the strip fast.