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Dusty Willow Hosts M8 vs. GT500 Battle, Four Races Are Needed to Close the Gap

Although many technical specifications and prices aren’t exactly on par for these two representatives of the sports coupe segment, we feel that Edmunds was ultimately right to pair the M8 Competition and Shelby GT500 together. The setting was iconic, the four drag races were fun, and in the end, the testing accurately portrayed a much closer overall performance picture.
BMW M8 Competition vs. Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Edmunds at Willow Springs 55 photos
Photo: Edmunds / YouTube
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The dusty tarmac of the Willow Springs International Raceway has seen many legends, and it’s only fitting that Edmunds' latest YouTube outing brought to party Ford’s ultimate muscle car. It’s the Mustang Shelby GT500, a more powerful beast than even Ford's own GT!

On this occasion, the example owned by the U.S. car website, faces what is probably the hottest sports car created on the Old Continent – BMW's M8 Competition. It’s another instance of drag racing apples and oranges, but these V8 fruits are actually closer than you think when it comes to performance figures (the stats are included in the gallery).

Sure, the GT500 does have the obvious power advantage, arriving in California with 760 supercharged horsepower against the Bavarian’s twin-turbo count of 617 Competition “pferds” (that’s a joke regarding the German translation of the word horse - "Pferdestärke").

On the other hand, we all know that German engineers like to fiddle with all-wheel drive, and the M8’s intelligent system is clearly its biggest asset for this drag racing challenge. As it turns out, both cars have lots of electronic nannies running around underneath the metal, as well as a huge pricing difference (which is cause for more childish rants in the video).

Although you can pretty much imagine the outcome of the drag race if you’ve seen how the GT500 performs in a dusty environment (and witnessed its Launch Control delay), the two hosts are thorough, and give both cars a fair chance by staging four drag races.

Needless to say, when all those traction-enhancing systems and AWD are involved, the M8 massively gaps the Shelby (races one and two). Things do begin to take a different turn when the M8 is taken into RWD mode, revealing that its Drift Mode is apparently great fun for drag races as well.

During race three, the M8 again takes the lead, but only barely manages to cross the finish line first. The last attempt is a roll race from 40 mph (64 kph), and finally the 760-hp might of the GT500 makes short work of the lower-powered Bavarian counterpart.

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About the author: Aurel Niculescu
Aurel Niculescu profile photo

Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution.
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