When discussing drag races, power and weight are frequently taken into account. If a more powerful and lighter car competes against a heavier, slightly less powerful competitor, the former will almost always win.
Of course, this isn’t always the case. Consider this matchup, courtesy of YouTube’s Officially Gassed. This is a drag race between two tuned ’90s legends: an A80 Toyota Supra and a Nissan Skyline GT-R R34.
However, they were tuned and modified by their owners, just like the majority of these cars that still exist today. The A80 Toyota Supra featured here was modified both inside and out, including carbon fibre parts. The Supra produced 850 horsepower (634 kilowatts) and weighed 3,086 pounds with a single turbo assisting its rebuilt 2JZ engine (1,400 kilograms).
The Nissan Skyline GT-R R34, on the other hand, received similar upgrades but was slightly less powerful (672 hp (501 kW) and significantly heavier (3,351 lbs) (1,520 kg).
However, that was not the end of the story. The Skyline GT-R, as you may know, sends power to all four wheels, whereas the Supra is a rear-wheel-drive coupe. In addition, the Nissan was outfitted with Toyo R888R semi-slick street tyres as opposed to the Toyota’s Pirelli P-Zero street rubbers. Both cars also had manual transmissions.
There were two types of drag races shown on the video: the first was from a roll while the other was from a standing start. The A80 Supra won the first round after a decider that ended in a photo finish. However, with the AWD traction advantage and the impeccable skill of the Skyline GT-R’s driver, the Nissan totally destroyed the Toyota when starting from a dig – and that was despite the Supra’s huge power and weight advantages.
