- A Tesla Cybertruck and C4 Corvette Grand Sport competed in a spectator single-lap circle race.
- Despite far more power and technology onboard, the Cybertruck ends up losing in the end.
- The race highlights the importance of driver skill and other factors in any race.
The Tesla Cybertruck might turn heads on the road, but it turns even more when something goes wrong with one. In several cases that’s meant getting stuck in sand, rolling over, or simply crashing into something.
In this case, all that goes wrong is that it loses in a single-lap circle race to a Corvette. It just so happens that the Chevrolet sports car in question is almost 30 years old.
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This race took place in Dacono, Colorado at the state’s National Speedway. The Tesla lines up against a C4-generation 1996 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport in its iconic blue livery with a white racing stripe. The Cybertruck, in theory, should absolutely smoke the Corvette since it makes some 845 horsepower (630 kW) compared to the 330 hp (246 kW) the Chevy made when new.
On top of that, the Corvette is on the outside of this circle track meaning that it’ll need to cover more ground at a higher speed just to keep up. Off the line, the advantage of an EV is immediately clear. The Cybertruck puts two car lengths on the Corvette before the first turn. What becomes clear in that turn though is that the truck is braking and the sports car isn’t.
On the backstretch, the Chevrolet is glued to the back of the truck and stays there until the final turn where it darts to the inside and slides into first place just before the finish line. The crowd goes wild. If the Cybertruck driver expected a different result, that’s on them.
The reality here highlights an often underappreciated fact: success in racing isn’t just about power-to-weight ratios or outright horsepower. Driver skill plays a huge role, as do physics and course layout.
On a drag strip, this wouldn’t have been a contest. On an off-road course, it wouldn’t have either. The Cybertruck would’ve walked the Corvette in both cases. Put these two on a real road circuit though and the outcome might still be in the Chevrolet’s favor, provided that the racing surface isn’t straight enough for the Cybertruck to keep its speed up. Kudos to both of these drivers for putting on a great show and finishing without any contact.