While track times are fun, drag racing records can go further to prove just how fast a car is on its own merits. On paper, the Bugatti Divo and the Tesla Model S Plaid are two of the fastest production cars in history. Here’s a breakdown of what happens when they happen to line up at the drag strip at the same time.
Brought to us by the folks over at DragTimes, these two cars have an estimated value somewhere north of $8.1 million dollars. Of course, $8 million of that value is in the super-limited production Bugatti alone. Despite the price disparity, both cars tout a sub-9.5-second quarter-mile time on paper from a standing start.
This video, however, begins with a roll race from about 40 mph (64 kph) and in it, the Divo and its millions of dollars worth of technology and engineering get left in the dust. Even with the added benefit of a little extra runway at the start, it can’t catch up with the Tesla despite going slightly faster (153 mph [247 kph] vs 155 mph [250 kph]) as the cars roll over the finish line.
Read: Bugatti Divo Development Ends After 2 Years
A second roll race is canceled because the Tesla hits something on the return trip and its lower front diffuser has to be repaired before it can run again. In exchange, we get to see the Divo beat up on a Porsche 911 Turbo S which it does without much drama. Then we get to see a couple of test passes in the Divo, the last of which, evidently, set a new ICE production car drag racing record.
In the video, we see it set a time of 9.27 seconds. Earlier this year, Car and Driver said that it achieved a 9.1-second quarter mile in the Divo so we’ll leave it to someone else to sort out who’s the record holder. In the final race of the night, the Tesla and Bugatti get a chance to go head-to-head from a dig.
The results are, to put it very mildly, underwhelming. As Teslas somewhat robotically do, it launches much like an actual lightning bolt and rips away from the start line. The Bugatti, on the other hand, despite having launch control engaged, lackadaisically rolls off of the line and through much of first gear before finally applying its full engine power.
Brooks from DragTimes says at the end of the video that he’s not sure what happened but it’s not the first time that he’s had trouble getting a Bugatti to hook up. We hope to see a rematch where each car performs at its best.