The one person you would least mind losing in a competition to is yourself, right? But since that could only happen to people with multiple personality disorder and, fortunately, you don't have that, it sounds like a pretty impossible scenario.
Well, it is and it isn't. The Guys at Autocar found a way of making it happen in a special Christmas episode featuring a bearded elf in which they pitted against each other an Audi R8 V10 sports car and a 1/6th scale Losi 6IX Audi R8 LMS radio-controlled car in a drag race. Wait a minute - losing to a 1/6th scale of myself doesn't sound so acceptable anymore.
That's probably why the two combatants took things rather seriously. The R8 V10 doesn't require any introduction: it's the ultimate sports car from Audi, with some people insisting on calling it a "supercar."
It has a V10 engine - as discreetly suggested by the "V10" part in its name - good for 540 hp and the same amount of torque when measured in newton meters (398 lb-ft). It'll go from zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 3.5 seconds thanks to its quattro all-wheel-drive system and a clever launch control feature.
Surely, the radio-controlled toy doesn't stand a chance. Well, believe it or not, the damn thing is just as quick to reach 60 mph, and it'll keep accelerating beyond that speed. To keep things even, the track had been scaled down to the size of the smaller car, so they're racing on a quarter-mile, divided by six. That's essentially a mile divided by 24, and we're too lazy to pull out the calculator and see what that means. Good thing they're kind enough to tell us: 67 meters (220 feet).
The frist thing that pops into mind the moment you see these two lined up together at the start is "God, I hope the real car doesn't run the tiny one over." You little jinx, you: that's exactly what nearly happens. The R8 V10 driver has to stop so that the expensive toy doesn't end up looking like roadkill on a highway.
The second one doesn't go much better for the R/C car as it struggles to maintain a straight trajectory over what is a very bumpy surface for its tiny wheels and a few puddles that must feel like ponds. But the third time's a charm, so we finally get to see a full run with both cars completing the race. Who do you think won?
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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