GSXR-600 Millage vs. Ford Focus SVT
I have two babies, My car a Ford Focus SVT in red and a Suzuki GSXR-600 sport bike. I am going to look at the millage comparason that I have seen on these. Note the millage I get tends to be better than stated from the factory. I think this is because my fraction of freeway driving is above the expected. Lets just say I enjoy them, and I take care of them also.
First some pictures.
The bike gets 50 MPG the car gets about 30 MPG. Now it was expected for the bike to get more but look at the size and weight:
| Weight | Power | Power/Weight | |
| GSXR-600 | 359 Lbs | 115HP | 0.32HP/Lb |
| SVT Focus | 2750 Lbs | 170HP | 0.061HP/Lb |
Now the bike is kicking out a lot more power, but it should not need this, but assume that both the car and bike must run at maximum output (peak power) when driving. What would the expected millage of that bike be? I get the feeling that the bike should be a lot better than it should, here are the numbers.
One gallon of regular 87 gas has 132 Mega Joule/Gallon. For those 1 Joule/Second is 1 Watt, and 1 HP is 745 Watts. Thus the bike is 85,675 Watts and the car is 126,650 Watts. Thus the car is consuming 47% more energy than the bike.
Thus if the car is getting 30 MPG shouldn’t the bike be getting 47% more? This is about right, 140% of 30 is 42 MPG. Thus the bike at 50 MPG is about what should be expected, this is because of less engine loss, aerodynamic losses and all the other bits about the bike (um it is a lot lighter
I am sure I got most of my math wrong here, (is 47% more of 63% more?) but I am in the ballpark on this one. My assumption that the bike should be getting better millage than it is was false. It gets right where it should be with current engine technology (these are 2004’s and 2003’s).
Sources:
Bikez 2003 GSX-R
Edmonds 2004 Focus SVT
