This may not come as a surprise to you. Recent years saw automotive publications and even the manufacturers battle the 1/4-mile with various fighter jets, with the most recent feat coming in the form of a drag race between the F16 Fighting Falcon and the Hellcat-grade 2015 Dodge Challenger.
We don’t want to spoil the ending of this, but we will mention two figures as a taste of what kind of enjoyment is in store for you: by the end of the runway, the F16 was traveling at a blistering 550 mph (885 km/h), while the Hellcat boasted with 101 mph (162 km/h), albeit on a wet strip of tarmac.
In terms of pricing, the cheapest F16 is the A/B, which holds a sticker price of 14.6 million bucks, a helluva lot more than the $60k Hellcat.
If you’re the kind of guy that talks in power figures, then you may be interested by the power front
Thanks to a General Electric F110 (type GE-100) afterburning turbofan, the F16C Block 50 pushes a thrust with the afterburner on of 28,600 lbf or 127 Kn, translating to a Mach 2 top speed (1,320 mph or 2,120 km/h) in its “clean” configuration.
As for the Hellcat-ified Challenger, that makes 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft (881 Nm), figures that are good enough for a 1/4-mile of 10.8 secs, a 60 mph (96 km/h) run in the low 3-second range and a top speed of 199 mph (320 km/h).
Naturally, there’s no competition between the two marvels of engineering, but one thing is a given: you’ll be thoroughly entertained by the following video, filmed at the Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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