Setting quick 1/4 mile or even 1/2 mile times from a standstill is all about the launch. It almost doesn’t matter how powerful your car is, if you can’t get it to hook properly off the line.
As if to prove that exact point, here’s a crazy powerful twin turbocharged Viper GTS, with no fewer than 1,150 HP (980 RWHP) on tap. Its opponent? A stock McLaren 720S, with only 710 HP (720 PS) of its own. Not that the 720S is what anyone would call an underdog.
Not even close
The Viper just wasn’t built for drag racing, at least not from a standstill. Its rear-wheel drive setup was already putting it at a disadvantage even before it received all those engine mods. Now, with 1,150 HP at the crank, it’s a real struggle to get the wheels to stop spinning off the line.
There were three races in total, two of them from a standstill, which ended horribly for the Viper, even though it did appear to match the McLaren’s pace at the very end, which is by no means easy given the fact that the 720S is one very “slippery” foe when it gets up to speed.
For the third and final race, the two supercars took off from a roll, which minimized wheelspin and allowed the Viper to give it everything it had. Was it enough to dispatch the 720S though? You’ll find that out at the tail end of the clip below.