Shelby GT500 Drag Races BMW M4 Competition in 1,263-HP Battle

At first, when I saw this match-up, I was pretty certain that the BMW M4 Competition was going to be annihilated. You would tend to think that a 503 horsepower vehicle can't stack up against a 760 horsepower muscle car, right? But you know how things are, you should never underestimate your opponent. Going into this battle I feel that it's important to have a look at the spec sheets for these two vehicles.

The starting price for the M4 Competition is $74,700 before tax ($995 destination and handling fee). But the one that has been brought forth for this challenge has a price tag of $102,000. While the Shelby GT500 starts at $72,900 before tax ($1,195 destination charge), the car that's lining up for the race today costs $81,000. This should be the first sign that this race isn't necessarily going to go the way muscle car fans are hoping it to go.

Both these cars are RWD, but the BMW is considerably lighter. Weighing in at 3,780 lbs (1,699 kg), it's roughly 400 lbs (181 kg) lighter than the Shelby GT500. And that may prove to be decisive in today's battle. The race is held at Willow Springs, and this is a no-prep surface, with no sticky VHT for improved grip. That means that Shelby's fancy launch control is not going to be of much help today.

The GT500 lights up the tires before the first run. That way it might have enough grip going off the line. Amusingly enough, it even has race gas in the tank, so it should win this hands down. But the BMW M4 Competition is off to an amazing start, which puts it in the lead. So it looks like efficiency is worth more than pure horsepower, at least for this first run.

The Shelby GT500 looks like it's coming back into the game, but there's nothing it can do to get up in front before the finish line. Due to excessive wheelspin, all that horsepower can't be used properly. But a rematch is up next. But the result is identical. The BMW is slightly ahead, but it can't increase the gap. Even so, the score is now 2-0 for the Bavarian-built "muscle car".

For the third run, we're about to see a rolling race. The Shelby GT500 should no longer be plagued by wheelspin, and this is where it's most likely going to shine. They set the starting speed to 40 mph (64 kph). As both drivers engage in a wide-open throttle battle, the M4 Competition takes the lead. But it's a short lasted victory, because the Shelby GT500 comes back flying, and scores its first win of the day.

To ensure this wasn't just pure luck, they go for a second run, based on the same format. For this final attempt, we get to see what we thought we were going to see from the beginning. The GT500 simply rockets off the line and crushes its opponent by the end of the run. So the valuable lesson here is: when there's no grip, don't start from a dig!