"World's Greatest Drag Race" Features Eight Cars, Over 5,000 HP, Plenty of Drama

MotorTrend has been holding the "World's Greatest Drag Race" tradition for ten years now, but thanks to the thing that 2020 will forever be remembered for, this anniversary edition had to abide by very different rules. Instead of lining up all the cars on the same piece of asphalt, as per tradition, the organizers had to tweak the process a little.

That's because despite only having eight vehicles, as opposed to the usual 12, there was still not enough room to run all of them side by side. With the space shuttle landing strip not available for COVID-related reasons, a pretty underwhelming (by comparison) track in the desert had to do.

With one big race featuring all contenders ruled out, the guys had to come up with another way of finding the winner, and a knockout pyramid seemed like the best solution. There would be four initial races, then followed by two more to select the two quickest cars that would battle it out in the final.

This year's list includes a host of clear favorites but also a few names that clearly don't stand a chance of making it past the first round. We have the fearsome Porsche 911 Turbo S, Ferrari F8 Tributo, Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, and Lamborghini Huracan EVO AWD, on the one hand, and the underdogs on the other - the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51, Acura NSX, Porsche Cayenne Turbo Coupe, and RAM 1500 TRX. In total, they combine for just over 5,000 horsepower.

The guys tried to make some sense of the initial pairings but also wanted to avoid a clash between the favorites before the final. With that in mind, the SUV and the pickup truck were an obvious match, and so was the Ford vs. Chevrolet duel - represented here by the Shelby GT500 and C8 Stingray. The Acura NSX was handed the task of facing the Ferrari F8 Tributo, while the Porsche 911 Turbo S and the Lamborghini Huracan EVO AWD met up in an all-Volkswagen Group match.

The only real surprise out of the first round, though it's a big one, was the Chevrolet beating the GT500, with some perhaps expecting the TRX to finish ahead of the Cayenne as well. Also, the 911 vs. Huracan duel may not have been as close as you'd expect. Other than that, nobody really expected anything other than an honorable defeat from the NSX, did they?

So, the second tier saw the pointless race between the 911 and the Cayenne Turbo Coupe and the equally redundant one between the Ferrari and the Corvette. With the GT500 and the Huracan out, there wasn't going to be any chance for dramatism, so they might as well had skipped straight to the final.

So, you know the Porsche 911 Turbo S is going up against the Ferrari F8 Tributo, but what you don't know is that they doubled the length of the race, from a quarter-mile to half a mile. That clearly favors the Ferrari, yet with this all-new 911 Turbo S, you just never know. Watch the clip and see which car won.