Carwow’s 10 fastest drag race times of 2024

We love a good drag race here at Carwow. The speed, the noise, the thrill of it all. You might think, hmmm… isn’t that all a bit childish? Well, to be completely frank and honest, yes. Yes it absolutely is, and we revel in that fact.

No matter how childish it is, though, there’s also some serious testing involved. The 1/4-mile drag race grew out of the American hot-rod and muscle car scene in the 1950s and 1960s (city blocks in America are a 1/4-mile long, so the races — illicitly at first — took place between traffic lights).

While it may seem simple — just wait for the green and go for it — drag racing is actually a terrific test of a car, as it involves acceleration, gear shifting, traction, straight-line stability, steering precision (for those minute adjustments needed to keep pointing ahead) and the stamina of the engine or batteries. For all the fun, there’s some proper science and engineering involved.

These, then, were the fastest drag races we covered in 2024, involving everything from supercar royalty to electric upstarts…

Ferrari SF90: 9.6 seconds

Lamborghini and Ferrari are both relatively new to the hybrid game, and the Revuelto and SF90 take to electrification like a duck to a welcoming pond. Both are fearsomely fast and noisy, but they’re both kept honest by the almost decade-old Porsche 918 hybrid, brought along to be the benchmark for the Italians to beat.

Tesla Model S Plaid: 9.6 seconds

The quietest drag race of the year, and also the race with the fewest proper steering wheels — as the latest high-performance Tesla Model S and Model X come with a ‘yoke’ control that’s more like what you get in an aeroplane than in a conventional car. This test has everything from two motor models to three motor cars, and electric cars with more than 1,000hp. Let’s (quietly) have at it!

Ferrari SF90: 9.8 seconds

Ferrari makes an SUV now? Truly we are in the end of days. Well, maybe not — after all, the big four-door, tall-roofed Ferrari comes with a naturally aspirated V12 engine. The fastest mid-engined Ferrari sports cars come with a hybrid V8 or hybrid V6 (that’s the SF90 and 296), and just to keep everything honest we’ve brought along the glorious front-engined V12 812 Superfast (nominative determinism at work, there). The ultra-rapid SF90 wins — not surprisingly — but how well does the ‘pure blood’ SUV fare?

Lamborghini Revuelto and BMW M3: 9.9 seconds

Can an estate beat a supercar? Cars that can carry the shopping and do blistering quarter-miles aren’t that rare, but a fast estate with a four-figure horsepower rating is not something you see everyday. The M3 Touring in our video normally has 510hp, but this one has been fully rebuilt by Tom Wrigely and he’s squeezed 1,000hp out of the rebuilt engine with its new turbos, and the rebuilt gearbox. The Revuelto is a more traditional big V12 engined Lamborghini, although its 6.5 litres is augmented by three electric motors giving it 1,015hp. Keeping them both honest is a tuned and tweaked Audi R8. Let’s go…

Ducati Panigale: 9.9 seconds

Electric cars are amazing at drag races, because it’s almost too easy — you just plant your right foot and you get all the torque dumped through the tyres all at once. If the electric car in question is the Audi RS e-tron GT Performance, then we’re talking a massive 925hp (and 1,027Nm of torque) in ‘Launch Mode’. But everyone knows fast ‘bikes are better than fast cars, right? Well, we’ve put up the fastest-launching Ducati road bike ever, the Panigale V4S. Two wheels or four? Who ya got?

Porsche Taycan Turbo GT and Tesla Model S Plaid: 9.9 seconds

Porsche has officially taken the electric performance car and made it insane. The latest Turbo GT model of the smooth, sleek Taycan EV saloon has a ridiculous 1,034hp and four-wheel drive to get it sharply off the line, and it even uses a two-speed gearbox to give it maximum acceleration. However, Tesla isn’t going to let Porsche have it easy, with the 1,020hp Tesla Model S ‘Plaid’ (it’s a gag from the old Mel Brooks film, ‘Spaceballs’). Keeping them both honest is the 925hp Audi RS e-tron GT, which is priced between the two other cars.

Brabus 900 Rocket R: 10.0 seconds

Brabus used to stuff big V12 engines into Mercedes saloon cars. Well, it still does if you ask nicely, but the famous German tuning brand has also branched out into tweaking Mercedes’ own turbo V8 engines, and has even taken to tinkering with Porsches. Well, we say tinkering — this Brabus Rocket R has been given Brabus’ own turbos for its 3.8-litre flat-six engine giving it 900hp. How much faster will the low-slung Rocket be than the big, hefty Brabus-tuned Mercedes SUVs?

Lamborghini Revuelto: 10.0 seconds

Here comes the ultimate! Old-school versus new-school, as the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ — 770hp V12 engine and four-wheel drive — takes on its grandson, the new Revuelto hybrid, which uses three electric motors to help its 6.5-litre V12, giving it more than 1,000hp. Both cars have four wheel drive, but the Aventador is lighter — often a crucial factor in a drag race. Which one wins, and how far behind is the loser?

Tesla Model X Plaid, Ferrari 296 GTB and McLaren 750S: 10.1 seconds

So, what’s going to be quicker — a regular turbo V8? A hybrid V6, now with Le Mans-winning pedigree? Or three motors’ worth of all-electric power? Well, in the hip-high, wedge-shaped corners we have the 750hp 4.0-litre twin-turbo McLaren 750S, surely the pinnacle of ‘conventional’ supercar design? Across the way is the Ferrari 296 GTB, which may ‘only’ have a V6 engine, but it also has an electric motor and a plug-in hybrid system and together they produce 830hp. Both of those are beaten by the 1,020hp of the three-motor all-electric Tesla, but then the Tesla is a high-rise SUV with seats for seven. Can the supercars beat the electric SUV?

Koenigsegg and Model X Plaid: 10.2 seconds

Once again, it’s conventional power versus electricity. Fresh from matching Ferrari and McLaren, the 1,020hp Tesla Model X Plaid returns to take on the Stockholm Hammer — the Koenigsegg Agera RST, which uses a 5.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine with 1,360hp, driving the rear wheels only. It’s almost a full tonne lighter than the Tesla, but it costs a ridiculous £3.5 million! So what’s quicker? The family SUV? Or the hypercar that its owner admits terrifies him every time he drives it?

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