The engineering schools PR management should pay more attention on educating motorcycling people about engines IMHO. 
DON'T compare a twin with a four cylinder, in terms of BHP. Twins with massive pistons and conrods can't rotate that fast as four cylinders with smaller pistons. See WSB 2008 regulations for physical evidence.
Twins never can compete with fours in top end BHP per similar capacity basis. But who needs top end bhp in real life??? Yeah, it's a good thing to have on a sunday race track with loooooong straights - but then you're another tosser who can't ride in the curves coz proper racers will ride past your fancy 180bhp GSXR1000 K7 with an ancient 1980s air-cooled 50bhp boxer twin like you're standing still in the sharp curves
. It's about the rider! 99.999% of the riders couldn't ride that bike to the limit on the race track, probably only some 0.001% of the riders (the real racers) would do few seconds better lap times with a more powerful BHP race bike riding both to the limit.Twins give much better everyday riding pleasure, a relaxed ride IMHO. They rotate "lazy" (compared to fours) but LOADS of torque straight out of idle you can feel with your bottom end. You don't have to rev it high to get it moving. Most of twins I've tried are overall much friendlier power delivery and more fun to ride, with character compared to overly "square" (=characterless) and gutless on low revs I4s, no matter what bike, a tourer or sports. Twins are becoming more like a practical machines with "fun-factor" (I mean character under this) in them while I4s are becoming more fancy BHP-written-on-the-paper showoff bikes that have revs up to the Moon as time goes on. You rarely need more than 100bhp in the everyday traffic and speed limits, but you need all the pulling torque the bike can give you, the lower rpms the better, and that's where the twins shine IMHO. Real life engines, that can keep up with I4s on sunday's race track too if you're a man enough to ride it imho.
From the specs side compare HP2 Sport with Suzuki TL1000R, or with Aprilia RSV Mille Factory, etc.
178kg BMW HP2 Sport: 130bhp / 115Nm (@ 6000rpm)
185kg Aprilia RSV Factory: 143bhp / 101Nm (@ 8000rpm)
197kg Suzuki TL1000R: 135bhp / 105Nm (@ 7500rpm)
Which isn't bad considering it's a BMW.
And from the image+character+overall looks side there's basically no other bike to compare it with. There's no other sports oriented bike in the market having a boxer twin, paralever shaft drive and telelever front. BMW has found that particular black hole in the market and made a niche bike. I reckon it'd not be sold much in numbers, it's expensive, it's a BMW, very different by technologies and design etc, but some fanatics definately get an orgasm seeing and riding it IMHO.
Anyways my point is, if I had the spare tosh for it, I'd just buy one today, just because it is so different from others
