The Hoonigans are back at it with their Honda vs Haters series of drag races. And it's starting to get increasingly frustrating for Honda fans to watch the show, as Civics and Integras alike are being walked on by more powerful cars. And with every new race, there are two essential things to consider. One, there's no replacement for displacement. And two, a bigger and smarter spent budget will guarantee a faster car.
The new season of Honda vs Haters started almost three months ago. At that point, a 1,085-hp Civic was going up against a 900-hp TT RS. Since then, we've seen several fast cars going up against VTEC-powered machines, including a Mclaren 620R, a Camaro Z/28, a Fox Body Mustang, and a Mazda RX-7.
But it was less than a month ago that the Hoonigans invited a seemingly invincible player to take on their challenge. The 1,300-hp GT-R had no issues taking down a 1,400-HPAWD Integra, and it's hard to think of any Honda that could stand up against this race-ready Godzilla.
Earlier today, Ken Block's team uploaded another drag race video, shot at the same Santa Margarita Ranch location in California. And they've done it again. The GT-R is back and will be racing a Honda with less power than the Integra mentioned above.
But it's also 700 lbs (317 kg) lighter and running on a set of slicks that could theoretically provide an advantage for today's race. Looking under the hood, you'll see a K20 engine with a Precision 7685 turbo running at about 40 PSI (2.75 Bar) of boost. Of course, the Civic also has the benefit of an AWD system, but a four-speed manual isn't going to do any good there.
When you look at the two cars side by side, you'd have to be insane to bet money on the Civic. It's bound to be fast down the quarter-mile (402 meters), but it just doesn't have that aura around it as the GT-R does.
Consequently, on-site predictions seem to be pointing in the same direction. So may the first man to cross the 1,000-ft (304 meters) finish line win! The Honda's driver is a bit too anxious to get on with it during the start procedure, so he's off before the GT-R can even get a proper launch. But that sort of detail will not change the outcome of this race.
Once Godzilla gets going, nothing can stand in its way. And we'd love to see the Hoonigans bringing out a worthy adversary for this vehicle. Perhaps they should turn to Stephan Papadakis for a solution, as he has built seven-second Hondas before.
The whole challenge gets a bit squirrely on the second run, but you can just ignore the drama and skip to the fun part. The GT-R just makes things look easy and wins despite having to start after its opponent. Let's just hope the organizers will bring out some telemetry data for future challenges so that we can see a more detailed analysis of the whole thing.
The things Dragos enjoys the most in life are, in no particular order: cars, motorcycles, diecast cars, and drifting. He's seen (and driven) many vehicles since he started his writing career back in 2009, but his garage currently houses a 1991 Mazda RX-7 FC3S Turbo II and a 1999 Suzuki SV650-S. Full profile
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