Watch a previous-gen Corvette Stingray race against a Dodge Challenger in this naturally aspirated drag race.
Yeah, turbos are great, but there’s something to be said for the burble of a naturally aspirated V8 engine. And then followed by the road of said engine as the accelerator gets mashed to the floor.
Here we have two cars with naturally aspirated V8s, but they couldn’t be more different. The first one appears to be an early-model Dodge Challenger with quite the paint job. We’re going to safely assume the Puerto Rican driver has done some work to his ride, given the fact it has an aftermarket front splitter and a custom exterior.
Under the hood, the early Challengers had a 5.7-L HEMI with 375 horsepower. Newer models get 100 more than that, and since the car he’s facing has at least 460 horses, we’re going to assume that the engine has received some updates to bring it in line with the competition, otherwise this is going to be a pretty boring race.
The Challenger is big and heavy, whereas the Corvette is light and aerodynamic. Under the hood is a 6.2-L LT1 V8 with 460 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque. Zero to sixty is done in just 3.7 seconds, which vastly outperforms the Challenger. It’s also got an 8-speed automatic transmission, although the driver admits in the video comments that he had the car in manual mode the entire time.
He also admits that it’s the first time he and his Challenger buddy have ever taken their rides to the drag strip. Don’t expect any spectacular times as both drivers forget to perform burnouts for the majority of their races. On top of that, Las Vegas Speedway is more concerned with having cars race than keeping their strip in pristine condition, so there’s not a lot of rubber laid on top of that surface. This is about as close to street racing as you can get.
Be kind to your racers as you check out the video. We all gotta start somewhere.