Extreme two-wheeler engineering

American Motorcyclist Association Superbike racing spurs development of truly super street bikes.

Automotive engineers often spend their careers benchmarking their products against prior versions, against competitors' products, and sometimes even against racing cars, if they have the good fortune to work on a program such as the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 or Ford GT, about which a legitimate comparison is possible.

But even those cars pale in comparison to all-out, purpose-built racecars. In today's heavily regulated market, according to conventional wisdom, there is no way to deliver a street-legal vehicle that delivers race-track performance. At least, it is not possible without building a very, very expensive car.