Carwow's Mat Watson is (again) somewhere with lots of sand around him and easy access to closing off a stretch of road for some unprepped quarter-mile shenanigans. Yep, that's Dubai all right, and he's at it again with his friends from Red Bull.
The last time we saw the likable presenter enjoy some cheerful banter before and after the races, he drove a white Toyota GR Yaris and a gray Toyota GR Supra while trying to duke it out with British rally raid motorcycle legend racer Sam Sunderland, winner of two Dakar editions (2017 and 2022). And why is that? Well, we all know pretty darn well that, like most automotive enthusiasts who love fast cars and vehicles that go fast in a straight line, Mat Watson, the host of the YouTube channel carwow, loves to drag race just about anything. And on that occasion, he certainly had more than he could chew from Sam and his Gas Gas RX 450F Red Bull Racing factory rally raid bike.
Sure, it had just 72 horsepower under the saddle, but it was also the lightest vehicle on the premises, weighing in at just 150 kg (330 pounds), and was ridden by an absolute icon, of course. Naturally, Mat had little to no chance at all to win until he slightly altered the rules of engagement at the very end. Anyway, now he's back behind the wheel of the GR Supra – the two-door sports car and its 3.0-liter inline-six engine with 386 ponies on tap hit the scales at 1,502 kg (3,311 pounds) with the six-speed manual transmission.
Again, he is not driving the lightest vehicle, as to his left sits Mathieu Baumel, a world rally and rally raid champion who also just won the 2023 Dakar edition alongside Nasser S Al Attiyah and their Toyota GR Dakar Hilux T1+. His Toyota GR Yaris is the least powerful and lightest of the bunch, but of course, no one has eyes for it because further to the left is Nasser himself with their GR Dakar Hilux! That's no regular pickup truck, of course, as it uses the 3.5-liter V6 twin-turbo engine from the J300 Toyota Land Cruiser, detuned to FIA regulations to around 361 horsepower. On the other hand, the rest of the truck is not 'standard,' of course.
So, at 4:45, they kick off the proceeds with the first drag race, where the GR Supra proves superior thanks to its higher trap speed. However, Nasser, a five-time Dakar champion and 26-time rally champion across different formats, clearly doesn't like to lose. So, the second and third drag races feature a de-restricted Dakar Hilux, which completely changes the equation. Of course, everything was done in good fun, including the rolling races from 9:25 and the on versus off-road drag and roll skirmishes seen from the 11:10 mark!
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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