Drag Race! Porsche 911 vs. Chevy Corvette vs. Shelby GT500 — Which Sports Car Has the Fastest 0-60?

This is the Edmunds Chevrolet Corvette. Yes, if you haven't heard, we bought one. You can read all about what it's like to live at Edmunds.com or by clicking the links below. But let's talk about that right now. Let's talk about

drag

racing. As you can see, I'm lined up against a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 and a Porsche 911. Now, how does this compare to those two when it comes to going fast in a straight line? Well, this is kind of the middle package. It has 495 horsepower coming from a naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8. It is an 8-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

In fact, all the cars here have dual-clutch automatic transmissions. And it weighs 3,600 pounds, give or take, giving a power-to-weight ratio of 7.4 pounds per horsepower. Now, that's significantly taller than the Shelby GT500 next to me driven by Alistair. Now it's got 760 horsepower, again 760 horsepower in the 5.2-liter supercharged V8 under the hood of that thing. But that may not be the advantage you think it might be, even at 5.5 pounds per horsepower. Hey, Alistair... how are you going to deal with the weight of that thing and also all that power? ALISTAIR WEAVER: Eh, clearly immensely talented, Carlos. CARLOS LAGO: Do you drive or does someone else?

ALISTAIR WEAVER: Keep laughing at your own jokes, son. CARLOS LAGO: He does sign the payment checks here. No, but how is that going to work? You have 760 horsepower, 4,200 pounds or so, I mean, we're talking about overpowering. ALISTAIR WEAVER: Yeah, that's the first time anyone has said that about me. 56% of the weight is in the front,

which

is not good news. Rear-wheel drive, of course, but I have 760 horsepower, so I think I'm in good shape. But I drive it myself. We have had this car on the test track. We know that the quickest route is to do it manually.

So unlike you cheating guys, I will conduct this properly. CARLOS LAGO: The words of a man who has something to prove. ALISTAIR WEAVER: An inferiority complex. CARLOS LAGO: Now, at the other end there is a Porsche 911, a car that unfortunately is not our property. It's driven by Reese, and although it costs $116,000, as it sits there, it's a base Carrera, so it only has 379 horsepower, giving it a power-to-weight ratio of about 8.9 pounds per horsepower. But that may not necessarily be the disadvantage you think it might be. Hey, Reese, why show up in this

race

of American cars with only 379 horsepower?

REESE ACCOUNT: Okay, wait. So the Shelby can make more than twice as much power as me, but Alistair will have a great time trying to reduce that. And I would say this has the best chance here. I have most of the weight on the rear axle, so I have plenty of traction. And I think Porsche probably has the best launch control. So I don't think you guys should be that confident. I think it might surprise you. CARLOS LAGO: You might have something at launch, but we'll see how it does against the Corvette. Remember, this... even though it doesn't have a rear engine, it still has the mast right next to the rear axle.

So it will be interesting to see how that rear-engined Porsche fares. REESE COUNTES: And Porsche has been making rear-engined cars for how long? This is Chevy's first attempt at a mid-engine, so we'll see how it goes. CARLOS LAGO: Very well, let's get to it. REESE ACCOUNT: So to set the launch control on this, all I have to do is toggle the drive mode button to Sport Plus,

which

is the most aggressive setting, hit the brake, hit the accelerator... A little light comes on that says Launch Control Activated, the engine stabilizes around 5000 RPM, I release the brake and go from there.

CARLOS LAGO: Very good, to put the Corvette in launch control. I'm going to put the drive mode on Track by turning this dial here. I'm going to go into the Performance Traction Management settings, which is an option unique to this car and doesn't apply unless you have PTM. I'm going to press the traction control button twice to engage the PTM mode selector and dial in, say, Sport 2. Once you're in that setting, put your left foot firmly on the brake pedal and then we're good to go. go. Right foot firmly on the accelerator pedal. I'll look at around 4000, 45000 RPM and release the brake and then hold.

Pretty easy stuff. ALISTAIR WEAVER: So, since the other two are basically cheating by letting the electronics do the work, I'm actually going to handle this myself. We have had the car at the Edmunds test track. We know it's a little faster if you ignore the launch control system and do it yourself. So this is the plan: I'm going to have my left foot on the brake, I'm going to accelerate a little bit with my right foot and then, at the starting point, I'm going to be very gently turn on the power, turn off the brake, let it comes on and then feeds power as we begin to feel traction.

I'm launch control, but I'm also Usain Bolt. I know I won't be the

fastest

at the start, but in the second 50 meters I'm going to fly through the middle to take the win. Oh yeah. CARLOS LAGO: Before we start, be sure to like, comment and subscribe. And also be sure to visit Edmunds.com. Alistair, where should they go in Edmunds? ALISTAIR WEAVER: You should check out our new feature: Edmunds.com/sellyourcar, where you can get a cash offer on your car. So sell your car with Edmunds, buy a Mustang, and go

drag

racing. CARLOS LAGO: That's Edmunds.com/sellyourcar or sell my car: Edmunds.com/sellmycar.

ALISTAIR WEAVER: That's right, Carlos. Well done. Gold star. CARLOS LAGO: Get it right one of these days: Edmunds.com/sellmycar. Now we're going to do drag racing. MAN ON THE SPEAKER: Drivers ready. 3, 2, 1, go! REESE ACCOUNT: Yes! CARLOS LAGO: I have to beat the Porsche! Come on! Come on! Come on! ALISTAIR WEAVER: Oh, God, that's horrible. CARLOS LAGO: Ah! By a hair! By a hair's breadth and the GT500 is nowhere to be seen. Court! I think you're missing a point, Mr. 911. REESE COUNTS: Yeah, I had a fantastic pitch. CARLOS LAGO: I don't know where the Mustang is.

Maybe he was so fast that he ended up behind us. REESE COUNTS: That was supposed to be the bell with all the power - twice as much as this 911 and it's nowhere to be found. CARLOS LAGO: Well, Alistair, I think you will at least be the first to return to the starting line. Reese, tell me about that pitch. REESE COUNTS: So this is launched with a bang. Hold the brake, hold the accelerator and it starts at 5,000 revs. All this weight on the back... I just hitched it and went. Yeah, that was... I don't know. I did everything right on that run.

CARLOS LAGO: I'm surprised how quickly this happens first. It's a really quick shift into second gear, like there's just tires spinning, it does its best to put second gear into fast, keep applying the throttle. The timing...their in-dash computer showed me that I did 0-60 in 3.6 seconds. But Alistair, what happened to the Mustang? ALISTAIR WEAVER: This is a bad surface for it. It's dusty, we're in the middle of the desert, it's very hot and traction is very limited. The weight is in the wrong place. And of course, you only have two-wheel drive. CARLOS LAGO: Are you saying that 760 horsepower is difficult to achieve with two tires?

ALISTAIR WEAVER: I fishtailed down to third gear. So he never really got... he got a run in the second... he never got his second wind and he went through the middle. CARLOS LAGO: So let's test the GT500 in launch control and see how it does against these two. REESE COUNTES: Alistair is really going to have trouble with that Shelby, but if he makes a good pitch, I'm probably toast. That thing pulls so hard once the power comes on and I just can't match it. The speed of the trap in the neighborhood is much higher. But we'll see.

CARLOS LAGO: It turns out that if we have all the mass over the rear axle, you can launch much higher as far as engine speed goes because that mass will simply put pressure on the rear tires even more than you could get from a front-engined car. . . That's the advantage, kids. You want that junk in the trunk. ALISTAIR WEAVER: So I have launch control activated through the Mustang's myriad menus. Left foot hard on the brake. The right foot lifts up and then we should hear a little pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Release the brake, which also releases the clutch and we're off.

But I still think I'm going to have the pen, the throttle pen, while it fishtails down the road. Last time, we were actually still in third gear. Okay, I think I have another plan. I think there's a bit of a delay between him yelling "go" and then launch control engaging. So it's a little like that lethal weapons movie... I'm going to have to go to... or who was the speedster who said: Go to B for bang? CARLOS LAGO: One follows. REESE ACCOUNT: This is just a lesson in traction management. ALISTAIR WEAVER: Yes, I think so. CARLOS LAGO: We are going to try it again.

I don't know what I can change to beat the Porsche except cheat and go early... and I can try, but man, that Porsche... ALISTAIR WEAVER: Are they beating you, Carlos, in the Vette? CARLOS LAGO: Like, by a hair. Anyway, let's try it again and I have to go around this country and improve this car by beating that underpowered, German-engineered Porsche. ALISTAIR WEAVER: Glorified Volkswagen Beetle. REESE ACCOUNTS: If I knew the German anthem, I'd start singing but... MAN ON THE SPEAKER: Are the drivers ready? 5 4, 3, 2, 1-- Let's go! CARLOS LAGO: Oh, Alistair jumped the line... and he still can't make it.

And I have the Porsche! I have the Porsche! I have a nose for the Porsche! Court! Come on! Oh, and then the Mustang flies by, like a teenager on the freeway with its hazard lights on. The

race

ended and suddenly Mustang appeared out of nowhere. REESE COUNTS: I mean, if we were on a half mile, this would be a different story, but... CARLOS LAGO: So Alistair, what happened to that race? ALISTAIR WEAVER: I had been adjusting a little bit to throw almost flat and then just... be smooth... try to be super smooth. Um, it's fishtail. I don't know if you can see it, but I actually still feel movement.

I'm applying a little bit of correction, just to keep it straight. And then it's only when it gets to the last cone and we get close to the end of the quarter mile that I have everything laid out and then I do you. And that's when you really feel the energy come on. CARLOS LAGO: I feel like having to be smooth with the GT500 is like NASA Space Control telling Buzz Aldrin and his crew to be smooth with the Saturn V rocket, you know, just easy, easy. Reese, I feel good because I beat you. REESE COUNTS: I mean, are we sure about that?

It was pretty close. CARLOS LAGO: I could see your headlights. I could see the front of your lighthouse from where I was sitting. That's not... that's not very close. That's a victory and I'm going to declare it. So now let's get ready for a rolling race. All three cars will line up at the same speed, and then as soon as we cross the starting line, we'll all step on the gas and see what happens when we're already moving. This test simulates what could happen if you were... I don't know, hypothetically, on a highway next to someone and you wanted to demonstrate to them what your 6.2 liter V8 sounded like... or 5.2 liter V8, or 3 - flat liter-6? 3.60 liter flat 6 cylinders?

I forget, exactly. For the Corvette, I'll put it in Track mode, not because you'd be cruising down the highway in that mode, but hey, I want all the competitive advantage I can get. And I think I'm going to try second gear. We'll see how it goes. ALISTAIR WEAVER: So in a rolling race, we'll maintain about 40 miles per hour and hit the cones. I hope we choose the right team. And then this should... should keep traction and we should win this race. It could be the return of the Mustang. What's incredible, and you have to admit, is that as soon as you can deploy the traction, it's almost like absorbing the other cars.

And these guys were telling me while we had a short break, it was crazy how fast this thing suddenly passed him at the end of the quarter mile. MAN ON SPEAKER: All right, guys, we're underway. ALISTAIR WEAVER: Okay, so we'll stay at about 40 miles an hour there. In the corner, press 40. Throttle control. Okay, let's take a chance on this. I was thinking about downshifting to third, but I think we're going to hit the throttle hard in second. Here we go. Here we go. Hit that cone and you're done. Come on baby. CARLOS LAGO: Oh, start... oh my God.

Oh Lord. ALISTAIR WEAVER: I just blew them away. Goodbye everybody! CARLOS LAGO: The Mustang disappeared. The Mustang is gone. ALISTAIR WEAVER: It was crazy how fast this thing is. CARLOS LAGO: The Mustang... just disappeared. What happened? I thought I was doing something wrong. Alistair, how did that feel? ALISTAIR WEAVER: I almost forgot to shift gears because I was too busy looking in the rearview mirror. It just shows, right? I mean, once you can deploy this power, this thing is an absolute monster. CARLOSLAGO: That's a one-horse race. You...we were never even close to the Shelby. I started hitting the accelerator harder because I didn't think I was hitting it hard enough with how fast that thing was moving away.

That's crazy! ALISTAIR WEAVER: I think he's restored some honor. I think any kind of Grand Prix, like a trophy, is not what life is about, right? It's about that kind of mid-range growl. CARLOS LAGO: So, Reese, what have you learned here about the Porsche? REESE COUNTS: It's a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Porsche knows how to build a car that will just do it and do it again and again.again. CARLOS LAGO: I think it proved what we said. I think it proved what we said before is that the Porsche 911 always punches above its weight class.

Alistair, tell me about the GT500. What have we learned? ALISTAIR WEAVER: For a while, Carlos, I felt quite embarrassed and started imagining all the YouTube comments in my head. Of course, in a rolling race, the power can come on, the traction is there and that just destroys the other cars. And besides, this is very fun... very fun. CARLOS LAGO: You know, I have to say, overall, I'm proud of the Corvette's performance: doing everything it could with just a naturally aspirated V8. And I think it was a really cool test, because it showed us the importance of not only horsepower, but also how far you go and also weight placement, because I don't think any car can do what that Porsche can do unless I had the engine and transmission set up exactly where it was.

Very good race for everyone. Although the GT500's front-engine layout and less effective launch control mean it doesn't get off the line as quickly as the C8 and 911, its excess power allows the Shelby to close the gap quickly as the race progresses. At least, that's what happened when we tested it. There on the test track, where it only takes one good launch to register a number, the GT500 was the

fastest

to the quarter mile of these three. But this drag race shows what happens in the real world and on the street. There, getting the perfect launch is even trickier, thanks to a maddening delay between the moment you release the brake pedal and the moment you start moving forward, not to mention all that power you have to manage.

With stickier tires and a stickier surface, like a prepared drag strip, there's no doubt the GT500 would win, but that's not what happened here. Now, how do we explain the performance of the Porsche compared to the Corvette? Well, we filmed this drag race at higher altitudes and in the heat, which probably affected the C8's naturally aspirated V8 more than the 911's turbocharged 6-cylinder engine. That'll conclude this drag racing and roll racing video. -on. We hope you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed making it. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe. Also visit Edmunds.com, especially Edmunds.com/sellymycar.

And we'll see it next time. Tootles.