Porsche 911 Turbo S Indulges McLaren 600LT in Street Drag Race, No Excuses Stand

The thing is, the Macca shouldn't really feel the need to defend itself and its performance. This race was skewed from the first moment it was planned because nothing, apart from the mostly insignificant weight, was lined up in the 600LT's favor.

When racing AWD cars, McLarens tend to lag behind after the launch, thanks to their rear-wheel-drive-only architecture. The British super sports cars can't get all the traction they need to put down their immense reserves of power, so either a lot of it gets wasted through wheelspin, or the driver has to step lightly on the throttle to make sure they dose the oomph just right and keep the tires in control.

We mentioned "immense reserves of power," but this particular McLaren doesn't necessarily shine there either. Yes, it has 600 PS (592 hp), but its opponent for the day has 650 PS (641 hp). It also has plenty more torque on tap (590 lb-ft/800 Nm vs. 457 lb-ft/620 Nm), despite the fact they both use 3.8-liter engines. However, the 911's is a six-cylinder boxer, whereas the 600LT gets a classic V8.

The thing with McLarens is that you can never take the official power output as granted, and by that, we don't mean to suggest the Brits are padding up their numbers. Quite the contrary. A recent dyno test of a 765LT revealed the 600LT's bigger brother was producing the power suggested by its name at the wheel, while a subsequent run showed the number could go as high as 770 wheel horsepower.

Given the fact that everything seems to be stacking up in the opposition's favor for this race, the McLaren definitely needs all the help it can get. But then again, Porsche has been known to undersell its cars' performance too. Maybe not to the same degree as the McLaren tests suggest, but the Germans are no stranger to surprising their owners with better-than-advertised real-world performance.

Well, whatever the case, it sure wasn't enough for the 600LT to give it the win. Or even make it close, at least. For the first race, the 911 driver was slower to react, and yet it still went ahead within the first ten yards of the race. The gap kept on getting bigger until the end of the race.

For the second race, the McLaren driver jumped the start by a mile in a desperate attempt to cross the line first at all cost. Despite the surprise, the Turbo S was still able to reel it in and nudge ahead before reaching the finish line. They say cheating doesn't win you races, but it almost did in this case.

The most relevant of them all, however, has to be the rolling race. It is the Long Tail's only chance to nullify the AWD advantage of the 911, and yet it's once again dominated by the Porsche. Perhaps McLaren doesn't treat all of their cars to its secret performance-boosting diet because there's no way a difference of 50 hp or less looks so badly on the road. Or maybe the "road" part is actually key: take this to the drag strip, and the prepped surface should help the Brit close the gap significantly. In the meantime, the 911 Turbo S remains the street racing monster it's proven to be so far.