900-HP Ford F1 Drag Races Audi RS 6, Someone's About To Get Smoked

We are getting close to the 100th episode of the "This versus That" series by Hoonigan. And there's always an exciting battle coming up next, as it seems. In today's race, we're looking at two vehicles that have been going all-out on the Santa Margarita Ranch before.

Old Smokey was featured in the "Hoonicorn versus the World" series, as it took on Ken Block's monster Mustang. It didn't have much luck at the time, but then again, few cars can match up to the twin-turbo V8 under the hood of the Hoonicorn.

As for the Audi RS 6, it has previously raced against another Pikes Peak vehicle on this piece of tarmac. Even though the tricked-out station wagon only had about 800 horsepower back then, it managed to take down the 950-hp Camaro after a total of three runs.

So today's event is quite special for both drivers: the man behind Old Smokey is looking to win in the name of all Pikes Peak enthusiasts, while the man in the Audi is looking for a second consecutive win.

A quick look at the specs of these two cars should provide valuable insight before they line up for the race. With all the new upgrades, the RS 6 is now up to 1,000 horsepower, and we can only guess the torque figures.

The stock twin-turbo V8 is rated for 590 lb-ft (800 Nm) of torque, so it's safe to say that it should now be at over 700 lb-ft (950 Nm). Two of the strong points of the German-built station wagon are the eight-speed automatic gearbox and its modern AWD system. This is one driver that won't have any traction issues today.

On the other hand, the RS 6 is about 800 lbs (362 kg) heavier than its opponent. The 6.7-liter Cummins Diesel inside the Ford F1 is running a compound-turbo setup, which delivers about 900 horsepower and over 2,000 lb-ft (2,711 Nm) of torque at 80 PSI (5.5 bars) of boost.

That's right, this abomination of a Ford has got over 2,000 lb-ft of torque! You don't see that every day in a car this old. With a four-speed sequential sending power to the rear wheels only, launching off the line might be a serious problem for this race.

To even out the playing field, the rolling race format is going to take over for all the runs. Drivers will be aiming to go all-out once they cross the start line while going at 40 mph (64 kph). On the first go, they're neck and neck until the last moment.

And you can only tell that Old Smokey won after watching the replay in slow motion; that's just how evenly matched they were. But the F1 also happened to be a bit too enthusiastic during the starting procedure, so its driver is about to pace the RS 6 on the second run.

This time it all looks like a completely different ball game, and the Audi gets its first victory of the day. So it all boils down to the last run. Just 1,000 feet (304 meters) separates the winner from the loser.

While the RS 6 could probably keep this up all day long, you can't say the same about the old Ford. Moments later, it seems to be struggling with traction issues, and that makes for the final nail in the coffin. The guys at Hoonigan need to come up with a faster Pikes Peak car to take down the RS 6.