Right now the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and the Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 sit atop each of their respective lineups. They’re two of the baddest American performance cars on the market and they’re about to go head-to-head. This U-drag-race tests acceleration, braking, and cornering – and one of these cars is much faster than the other.
That might be a bit surprising because on paper these cars share one vital statistic. The Corvette carries 5.49 pounds per horsepower while the Mustang carries 5.48 pounds per horsepower. Sure, the Vette has just 670 hp (499 kW) and the Shelby makes 760 (566 kW), but the Chevy is lighter by some margin.
In case you haven’t seen a u-drag-race, we’ll explain it briefly. The cars line up just like any other drag race but after the quarter mile, they have to slow down, turn around, and race back to the start line. In essence, we get a chance to see every major aspect of their performance in one race.
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Since each car uses rear-wheel drive, one might think that they’d launch at similar rates. That’s not how things shake out in the real world though. The Corvette absolutely dusts the Mustang off the line. When the braking zone comes, the Corvette gets the upper hand again and it completes the trifecta by cornering fast enough that it can race back to the finish first.
In fact, the Corvette does that same trick both times and takes home a dominant 2-0 victory at the u-drag-strip. It’s the second-fastest car to ever complete this test with a time of 31.3 seconds and so far is only slower than a McLaren 765LT. The British supercar did the same feat in 29.6 seconds.
The Ford’s fastest time was 32.1 seconds and it currently holds second place when it comes to trap speed. It finished the race at 148.5 mph (238 km/h) compared to the Vette which finished at a speed of 145.2 mph (233.68 km/h). Neither came close to the McLaren, which trapped at 158.8 mph (255 km/h).