Red Bull dominated the 2011 F1 season with the RB7, which took home 12 victories out of 19 races that year. The question is, can the decade-old racecar keep up with heavily tuned supercars in a quarter-mile drag race?
Carwow’s Mat Watson is much obliged to answer that question, but first, let’s go through the technical stuff of every car featured in the video below.
The championship-winning RB7 features 2.4 liters of high-revving V8 magic, an 18,000-rpm engine that develops approximately 750 horsepower in this particular tune. Red Bull’s open-top racer also happens to be stupidly light, which translates to a tremendously impressive power-to-weight ratio.
Moving on to the green machine in the middle of the runway, that’s a Lamborghini Huracan without a rear bumper. As you can tell for yourself, the stylistic change is explained by the ginormous turbochargers and extra piping that crank up the 5.2-liter V10 to a mind-boggling 1,200 horsepower. Torque is thoroughly bananas in its own right thanks to 1,240 Nm (915 pound-feet) as opposed to 560 Nm (413 pound-feet) for the factory rating.
The black-painted Nissan GT-R NISMO on the right side of the runway looks pretty stock at first glance although it’s anything but stock. The JM Imports 4.1-liter stroker engine and upgraded turbochargers are the biggest differences over the standard R35, resulting in 1,300 horsepower and a simply unbelievable 1,290 Nm (1,749 pound-feet) of torque. As expected of Godzilla, the 2+2 coupe is a little heavier than the Lamborghini Huracan.
On the first run, the Italian exotic scoots off like nobody’s business and keeps the gap steady over the RB7 as it crosses the line. Pretty much the same thing happens on the second race, with the GT-R finishing neck and neck with the F1 car. The reason the R35 doesn’t match its rivals at launch is the driveline, which features “straight driveshafts” according to Watson.
The Huracan took 8.9 seconds to complete the quarter-mile, followed by the RB7 in 9.2 seconds and Godzilla in 9.3 seconds. The Lamborghini also wins the roll race, and finally, the braking test favors the Formula 1 car because it features incredible brakes and less than half the weight of its challengers.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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