The 2020 Toyota GR Supra and Ford Mustang Bullitt are two of the most exciting sports cars launched in recent years and Car Magazine in South Africa recently lined up the duo for a head-to-head drag race to see which is the quickest.
While both the Supra and Mustang Bullitt are positioned as driver’s cars, they are vastly different from one another.
The Toyota GR Supra, for example, is significantly smaller than the Mustang and features a 3.0-liter turbocharged six-cylinder engine from BMW that produces 335 hp and 369 lb-ft (500 Nm) of torque. By comparison, the Mustang Bullitt uses an all-American 5.0-liter naturally-aspirated V8 engine offering up 454 hp and 390 lb-ft (529 Nm) of torque.
Watch: Top Gear’s Chris Harris Thinks 2020 Toyota Supra Feels Too Much Like A BMW
While both cars are rear-wheel drive, it is only the Mustang Bullitt that is sold with a six-speed manual transmission while the Supra has a ZF eight-speed automatic. In this drag race, it’s perhaps the gearbox that’s the deciding factor.
Both the Mustang Bullitt and Toyota Supra accelerate off the line with impressive pace but every time the Ford driver has to change gears, the Toyota inches ahead. At the end of the quarter-mile, the Supra had recorded a best time of 12.53-seconds while the Ford was a full second behind at 13.53-seconds.
Interestingly, other tests of the Bullitt have shown that it can set quarter mile times in the mid-12 second range. Evidently, it’s not quite as easy to launch consistently as the Supra.