The drag race organized by the carwow team has the flavor of a Hollywood duel, pitting two American cars from the same brand against each other: the Dodge Viper GTS (Mk2) and the Dodge Challenger. It seems like a domestic showdown between models from different eras, but it’s just another challenge organized by the well-known YouTube channel.
V10 Dodge Viper vs V8 Dodge Challenger: who wins the drag race?
As usual, we won’t spoil how the challenge ended, because anticipation adds more pleasure to discovering the result, which you can only do by watching the video. Here we’ll just briefly review the fundamental characteristics of the vehicles competing in the quarter-mile drag race.
On one side, there’s the Dodge Viper GTS, powered by a naturally aspirated 8-liter V10 engine, capable of delivering 456 HP and 664 Nm of torque, with a weight of 1,595 kg. The energy stored within is transmitted to the rear wheels through a 6-speed manual transmission. On the other side is the Dodge Challenger RT “Scatpack”. This one is powered by a 6.4-liter V8 engine, developing 492 HP and 644 Nm of torque, with a weight of 1,957 kg. The propulsive force is transmitted to the rear wheels through an 8-speed automatic transmission.
On paper, the “older” sister should enjoy a good advantage in the drag race, due to the significantly lower weight reading on the scale, which more than makes up for the lower energy output, but in these types of acceleration challenges, theory doesn’t always match practice. Will the better power-to-weight ratio be enough to give “glory” to the Dodge Viper GTS, or will the more recent Dodge Challenger RT set the rules of the game? There’s only one way to find out: click the video’s play button.