Put a car and a bike on the same track and they should be pretty evenly matched: the bike can accelerate quicker but the car can brake later and harder and, in theory, corner faster. But there has to be a winner and, in this time trial between a Ducati Panigale 1199S and a McLaren MP4-12C around the tight and tortuous Cadwell Park in the UK, it's closer than you might think.

Ducati Panigale 1199S vs. McLaren MP4-12C

Car vs. bike videos are always great because the bike normally wins which, given that this section of topspeed.com is all about bikes, is generally considered a Good Thing.

The other reason they're good is that they normally involve the best bikes and cars in the world. As far as I can tell, no-one has bothered to organise a race between a BMW G310 and a Volkswagen Polo, thankfully. We'd all be dead with boredom before it was over.

So, here we have the Ducati Panigale 1199S in all its Italian glory, with an 1199cc v-twin producing 195bhp and 97.4lb.ft of torque going head-to-head against the ever-so-British McLaren MP4-12C with its 3.8-litre, twin-turbocharged V8 developing 592bhp and 443lb.ft of torque.

Then, there's the venue. Cadwell Park race track in the UK is narrow, sinuous and insanely fast and frightening. British Superbikes race there and this video shows you just how mad it is.

Because it's so narrow and because the gap between the car and the bike is so small, it would be too dangerous to run together, let alone the virtual impossibility of one getting past the other given the parity of performance and lack of room so, it's a race against the clock.

The bike has the car beaten hands-down on acceleration and top speed along the straights, but the car can brake much later and harder and matches the bike in corner speed. It's going to be nip and tuck around one of the UK's best race tracks.