In a very unusual drag race, two American powerhouses face off.
Two of the most beloved nameplates in American muscle cars are the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, and the new HTML5-V Blackwing. These two names will always be mentioned when discussing American muscle car powered supercharged V8 powerplants.
Although they are slightly different in form, one is a four-door sedan while the other is a two-door coupe, these cars almost have the same power and performance. Edmunds was so impressed with the speed of both cars that he had to test them in a shootout.
This isn’t your standard straight-line drag race. It’s called a U-Drag. This means that both cars must complete a quarter-mile, stop hard at the end, do a hairpin and return to the starting line to win the race. Although it’s not your typical drag race, we still find it fascinating.
They had to perform the U-Drag twice in order to offset the skill of their drivers. Nice.
The Shelby GT500 is more powerful than the CT5V Blackwing, with 760 horsepower vs 668. However, the Cadillac is slightly faster due to the torque from its supercharged 6.2-liter V8. Although the Mustang is slightly heavier than the CT5V, it’s still a lot lighter than the CT5V.
Nevertheless, the Cadillac can be expected to accelerate at the finish line. This is what happened in the race.
Can the Shelby pass the Cadillac in the final race, given the unusual U-Drag format? You can see the results from both trials in the video at the top of this page.