What do you do when you have a brand new Corvette C8, a drag strip, and an unlimited amount of YouTube airplay? You race it! That’s exactly what the folks over at Hoonigan love to do on their This vs That series. Their beloved Corvette faced an unfamiliar contender in their latest episode – a 1970 850-hp Baja Bug.
This is not your conventional drag race since both automobiles thrive in different territories. The Baja Bug is an outdoorsy rugged terrain ripper, while the C8 Corvette is an American street king.
Eric Connor’s Baja isn’t your ordinary sand rail Bug. It’s street legal, insured and still uses its 1970 body. Apart from cranking out 850 ponies, it has a conspicuous wagon hanging out at the back that carries all the juice.
Powering this monster buggy is an 18-cubic inch LS3 engine built by Robert Marouzi. It has Lunati rods and a crankshaft with a 4.5 Whipple supercharger. According to Connor, the best part about the build is “It’s violent early,” making over 881 Nm of torque at 2,500 RPMs. It uses 110 Octane fuel and runs a Mendiola 5S sequential gearbox.
It’s not a cheap contraption to keep, according to the owner. It can cost up to $1,000 in fuel if you decide to go glamorous on the throttle over a weekend.
Last year, Mobil 1 gave Hoonigan their prized 2021 Chevrolet C8 Corvette for “torture testing.” It doesn’t have the best rep in the series. Ron and Vin blew the motor on the first track day, and it also got schooled by a custom-built race car with a turbo-charged Suzuki Hayabusa engine.
Hooonigan’s C8 packs a 6.2-liter V8 paired to an 8-speed dual-clutch tranny making 495 hp. On paper, the Baja Bug destroys the C8 Corvette fair and square, but if history serves us right, things can get surprising on the strip.
After three intense races, one racer emerged victorious. We won’t get into the details, but we will let you find out who dominated the event.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News