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BMW M2 Drag Races Ford Mustang 5.0, Cheats a Little

While Google is busy making the most boring car of all time, our entertainment still requires BMWs and Mustangs to battle to the death... or at least until one of the runs out of rubber.
BMW M2 Drag Races Ford Mustang 5.0, Cheats a Little 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
The Ford Mustang V8 has always been pitted against European cars with smaller, turbocharged engines. It's a fun thing to do, and all you need is a straight piece of road plus two drivers with heavy right feet.

Or so you'd assume as BMWs of recent years have become increasingly complicated to launch, even if they're supposed to have perfect little German nannies.

You're about to watch a drag race from Evo magazine, shot in Britain. Such a thing wouldn't have been possible three years ago, as the Mustang wasn't available in right-hand drive. We also want to note that Certina is sponsoring all these videos, not that we needed their help to keep track of time.

Both the Mustang 5.0 and the BMW M2 are what you'd call really cool cars that are still affordable. We'd be doing a mediocre job if we didn't tell you that the Mustang would be a lot cheaper to buy and service over in America. Yet on this side of the pond, BMW are still masters of the rear-wheel-drive shenanigans, but they're still more expensive. In fact, you could buy a Dacia with the money that separates these two.

Even though the power-to-weight ratio is nearly identical, BMW's better set up chassis, superior low-end torque, and a sneaky little cheat. We are talking about the dual-clutch gearbox, capable of changing gears way faster than any regular man could.

The M2 covers the half-mile distance in 19.9 seconds, one full second faster. That doesn't sound like much, but watching the video will prove they are anything but close rivals.

So even though we hate the Germans for selling us such expensive coupes, they are still masters of their trait. But what about curb appeal? While there are millions of BMW coupes in Europe, Mustangs are as rare as hens' teeth. It's not so much a matter of novelty, but a permanent attention magnet.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
Mihnea Radu profile photo

Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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