Bugatti Veyron cordially invited to eat Acabion GTBO’s dust
The top speed war is officially over. Motorcycles win.
Acabion’s Hayabusa-powered GTBO road-ready streamliner has taken the velocity crown back from those smug Bugatti Veyron owners in a pretty comprehensive fashion and placed it back into the rightful ownership of us bike nuts. For a bargain price of only EUR540,000 (US$790,000) you can now buy yourself a vehicle that will easily eclipse the Bugatti’s 250mph top speed - using less than 20% throttle. Take that, MadMadMark007.
The Acabion GTBO features a turbocharged ‘Busa engine tuned to the gills and belting out anywhere from 354 to 750 horsepower. Its power-to-weight ratio (between 1000 and 2000 horsepower per tonne) and its bullet-like aerodynamics allow it to hit an electronically limited top speed of 340mph… Using only half throttle. That’s near as damn to 550kmh in the new money, or a little over 150 metres every second. God only knows where you can buy tyres rated for that sort of speed, and you’d best leave your passport in the glovebox in case you hit a pebble and need to catch a plane back home.
You should be a reasonable chance at the traffic-light drag races too, because if you gun it and that poor, tortured rear tyre hooks up, the designers claim you should be able to hit 300mph in under 30 seconds. In other words, there’s no vehicle better than a GTBO if you really want to GTFO.
I’m not sure at which point vehicles like this stop being marvels of engineering and wander into the realms of pure ridicule - I mean, this one’s got training wheels. Very spiffy looking electronic ones that pop down to keep things in line at low speeds, but they’re training wheels nonetheless, so expect a wedgie from the kids at school. And I wonder whether there’s anywhere short of a salt flat where you can hit 340mph with even the most cursory nod to your own safety.
If you want to read more about the Acabion’s fuel economy, low-speed electric drive, impressive storage space, ease of maintenance and EUR100,000 standard sound system, check out Serious Wheels. If, like me, you’re more interested in seeing proof of the company’s eyebrow-raising velocity claims, you’ll have to wait until somebody independant of the company (thebikergene comes to mind) gets a test ride. I’ll be waiting by the phone.
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February 7th, 2008 at 10:54 am
it is very nice
February 7th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Hmmmm…maybe not. The actual Land Speed Record for a motorcycle is a hair over 350, and I’m sure that was at full throttle, and that it had more than a modified Hayabusa engine. However, the old record WAS a Hayabusa powered streamliner, and it did 342. But again, these are 20 foot long streamliners.
Edna: Seymour, you have to think of the children’s future.
Seymour: Oh, Edna. We all know that these children HAVE no future.
[Everyone stops and stares at Seymour.]
Seymour: Prove me wrong children. Prove me wrong.
Curiously, Matt
February 7th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
But was it a production machine Matt? Like the Veyron, this mental jigger will be available on a showroom floor somewhere, capable of these speeds straight out of the crate. What I didn’t realise was that it would come so close to the outright land speed record for motorcycles… Wow.
February 8th, 2008 at 4:55 am
Loz,
These are the best numbers I could find:
old record 342 mph Hayabusa based engines (3?) 900 horsepower claimed
most recent record 350mph 3000cc custom made engine (not based on production engine), 425hp
Now that’s a weird combination, 3000cc and 425 hp, but there must be some good reason for it. Maybe greater reliability with a lower stressed engine.
Anyway, my real point is that with anywhere from 425 to 900 hp you can go very fast, but you need a fully streamlined purpose-built motorcycle to do it. To imagine that any motorcycle would appear on a “showroom floor” and even begin to approach 250 is a little ridiculous. Tires alone would put a stop to something trying to go 250mph, never mind 350mph! You can’t buy that sort of tire just anywhere, and to read the story about the Hayabusa engined model, sometimes it’s hard to just find those type of tires (at any price).
Top speed claims, with accompanying throttle position claims, are just a lot of chest-puffing, but I’ll be happy to eat these words if I’m wrong!
Matt
February 8th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Loz,
You’re not really believing this, are you? Chances are that poor translations on the home web site merely confused kph with mph. 340kph=212.5mph. That’s a little more believable, although production was supposed to have started in April 2006. Gee, I wonder what’s taking so long?
Amused,
Matt
February 8th, 2008 at 11:48 am
[…] even dissed your motorcycle! Well, help has arrived, and it costs less than the Veyron to boot: Bugatti Veyron cordially invited to eat Acabion GTBO’s dust
February 9th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
How can you call this a motorcycle, when it has 4 wheels? They do register golf carts as motorcycles in some places. I would never ride a motorcycle with “training wheels” just for the record. Speaking of record, there is a place called Bonneville Salt Flats in Nevada, USA. where full throttle runs are encouraged. Seek sponsorship from one of the big tire manufacturer’s (if you can get them to stop laughing at the training wheels). Talk is cheap, back up your claim Mai I suggest that you poke some “leg holes” in the belly of this thing? Get rid of the “training wheels”, then, call it a motorcycle.
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:33 am
Bugatti Veyron cordially invited to eat Acabion GTBO’s dust
The top speed war is officially over. Motorcycles win.
Acabion’s Hayabusa-powered GTBO road-ready streamliner has taken the velocity crown back from those smug Bugatti Veyron owners in a pretty comprehensive fashion and placed it back into the right…
February 26th, 2008 at 3:31 am
Too right Dave, this hardly looks like a motorcycle to me. Four wheels and a full body shell? all they have done is made an even faster car to beat. As for the top speed war being officially over, I think not.
February 26th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Fair call lads. I’d still like a crack at one!
February 26th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I’d like to see you countersteer in a car, I bet this bike still does. When it’s going fast, it is a motorcycle.. if the little wheels were down still at top speed, then it would indeed be a car.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
[…] bye veyron right here. Well it’s a bike not a car and I don’t know its stance on being street legal, but it’s still […]
April 1st, 2008 at 12:56 am
While i am doubtful of this bikes 300+mph claimed top speed, the veyron and pretty much all 1000+hp cars have been food to just about any turbo bike making atleast 350rwhp. Turbo busa’s can range anywhere from 250 (stage 1 kits) to over 500hp and yes, they do put that power down to the ground on DOT approved tires at the dragstrip let along a top speed event or highway. Maxton and Texas mile events have a few Street legal t-busa’s that have done 250mph. Most notable being the yancy’s turbo busa which did 260mph at maxton. These are 1 mile runs starting from a dead stop. Over in the uk another T-busa holds a record of 265mph in street trim. On the majority of todays roads and highways though whoevers quicker to just 180 let along 200+mph will win most highway encounters. There’s vid on youtube of a 2006 R1 running with a bugatti veyron and Porsche Carrera GT. Keeps with the cars well till they finally find stretches of road to go over 180mph and start leaving the bike which is only 2 or 3 times. Otherwise in the bends, entrance ramps and runs up to 160 before letting off for traffic the bike is on their tail easy. He could have pulled a “ghost rider” and cut between traffic leaving the supercars behind for good but he was filming nice footage from his tankcam.
May 5th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
This my friends is called Vaporware.
Cars still have and will always have the final word in top speed. Bikes have too much drag, period.
You may say that “bikes” like this one could eclipse cars, but streamlined items like this are not motorcycles, no more than the Jet Powered land speed cars are “cars”. If you want to say that this is a bike, then the “Thrust SuperSonic” can be called a car and has you beat by a few hundred miles per hour.
May 21st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Lol,
Not a motorcycle??? So I guess at low speeds and at stops when you put your legs down, then your motorcycle ceases to be a motorcycle too huh??
Personally I would love to “fly” something like this if given a chance… My only concern is cornering something that is stretched out like that. I can’t wait to get one though.
August 1st, 2008 at 9:27 am
all i want to know is where to send the check?