World's Greatest Drag Race 8: Who Wins? Lambo, McLaren, Porsche, ZR1, or a Surprise Guest?
12 cars, 6,410 hp, 3 miles of runway, one winner
Eight years isn't a long time, but it's long enough to forget. The World's Greatest Drag Race has become such a normal part of what we do atMotor Trendthat it's hard to remember when we didn't undertake the rather loony quarter-mile experiment of launching 12 sports and supercars simultaneously down a runway.
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Now that the drag race is a given around here, we're too busy looking forward to look back. The question is not whether we'll do a race this year; it's what we'll do differently this time. Some would argue a new crop of cars is enough, but we know we can do more to boost the excitement factor.
Easter eggs in past drag races have varied. In the second race, the Subaru BRZ, which was going to come in dead last no matter what, did a donut across the finish line. In the fifth, I jumped the start in the Miata (and still lost). The next year, we added in a Dodge Charger Hellcat. Last year, it was the Miata that got the boot in favor of the quickest car we'd ever tested, the Tesla Model S P100D Ludicrous.
If you need a refresher or just a good binge-watching Saturday afternoon, you can find all seven previous drag races on MotorTrend.com/bdc.
This year, we were once again the guests of our outstanding hosts at Vandenberg Air Force Base, home of the cleanest, most race-ready airfield in the world (no hats on the flight line, please). You've already seen the pictures and know we had a special guest. Once again, the Miata was excused in favor of something with a bit more horsepower—the old-fashioned, gas-guzzling kind. Meet the 1320.
Formally known as the Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320, this 485-hp bracket racer's dream stole all the Demon's drag racing goodies, including a transmission brake, line lock, heavy-duty axle shafts, and drag-special damper and traction control programming. On the way out, the 1320 ditched its rear and front passenger seats and swiped a set of Nexen street-legal drag tires.
The 1320 will need every last advantage, as it's lined up against some of the top supercars on the planet—each equipped with barely street-legal tires, launch control, and even more horsepower. Our quarter-mile times provide a hint of the finish, but if you want to really experience WGDR 8, you've got to watch the full video.
Watch World's Greatest Drag Race 8 right here!
The half mile, double or nothing
Some years, World's Greatest Drag Race is a blowout. Others, it's a nail-biter. Last year was the latter; by the end of the quarter mile, the Ferrari, Porsche, and McLaren were running down the Tesla and would've beat it if the race were a bit longer. This year, we're not playing "what if" bench racing games. It's time to see who's a quarter-mile star and who has real legs. To find out, we added a standing half mile and brought some special guests. To find out who's there and who wins, you gotta subscribe to Motor Trend OnDemand.
Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
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