Mustang Dragster Goes Airborne, Hitting the Brake Is for the Weak

The fastest stock car ever made is the battery-electric Rimac Nevera. It has 1,914 horsepower available via the right pedal, and is the official ¼-mile record holder, with 8.582 seconds at 167.51 mph (269.58 kph), dwarfing the 9.08 seconds, with a 154.10 mph (248 kph) exit speed, of the Tesla Model S Plaid.

At the extreme end of the spectrum, you’ll find vehicles such as this turbo’d Ford Mustang, or what used to be one anyway, because it has numerous mods. With everything up and running, it is insanely fast down the quarter mile, to the point where it can humiliate even the Californian super sedan or the Croatian hypercar.

Now, it didn’t humiliate anyone on this particular run, because the driver had other things on their mind when the whole car went airborne shortly after the lights turned green. You can see the nose pointing to the sky, and as more air hits its belly, the rear end touches the asphalt, creating a lot of fireworks.

How would you have reacted? The instinct is to hit the brakes, either gently or firmly, yet this would have made it even more uncontrollable. Fortunately, the driver was aware of it, as all they did was lift off the throttle. This was enough to get the nose down again, but it was one violent landing. Even so, it still managed to cross the finish line in 10 seconds, though the actual time was likely the driver’s least concern.