The point of a drag race is to discover which car is faster in a straight line over a relatively short distance and is the most common form of automotive competition because it is easy to both spectate and participate in. In order for it to be useful to the audience however, the two cars ideally need to be evenly matched within the same category in order to generate a surprising and sometimes nail-biting finish. Here at CAR we haven’t always adhered to that unspoken rule which we can prove with the following five videos in no particular order:
Audi RS4 Avant vs Audi S4 Class A Production Race Car
Production race cars are stripped down to the bare essentials and completely track focused which means that in any given speed situation the production car will win. We put it against a stock standard RS4 Avant in any case just to see what the difference between these two RennSport heroes would be. The results are obvious.
Honda Civic Type R vs Honda CR-X
This was a mismatch of so many different proportions. Age, aspiration, power output, weight, mechanical advantages, capabilities of the drivers… The list goes on. But we had the opportunity to pit Honda’s new and most track focused Civic Type R against a custom CR-X tuned by CAR’s very own Road Test Assistant; we weren’t going to give that a miss and as it turns out, the results were surprising.
Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG vs Subaru WRX STI
It’s an unlikely situation but not an impossible one. All of the numbers from the G63 AMG are much larger than the WRX’s, both good and bad, which made for a more than interesting competition. The G63 has the advantage in power but the WRX’s lightweight layout did make a difference.
Audi RS3 vs BMW i8 vs Range Rover Sport SVR
Three cars that could form the perfect performance garage pitted against one another. A fast hatch, a fast sportscar and an unusually fast SUV set to compete against one another in a drag race is destined to make for some interesting footage on one of South Africa’s most popular drag locations.
McLaren 650S vs BMW S 1000 RR
Pitting a car against a bike always makes things interesting but let’s be honest, it’s not the most equal match up to be had but it answers the age old question of whether the superbike is indeed faster than the supercar. Around the track this would have been more of an accurate test but nonetheless, this drag race was much closer than what we thought it would be.