Drag race: new Porsche 911 vs Shelby Mustang GT 350

When the drag strip comes to mind, muscle cars are usually not far behind. Big V8 engines, enormous tyres, burnouts, loads of noise and drama. Not the sort of place you’d imagine a Porsche 911 Carrera feels at home, right?

We’re not so sure about that, so to find out we’ve got our hands on a Shelby GT350 – a high-performance version of the Ford Mustang – to pit American muscle against German engineering.

Porsche 911 Carrera

The entry-level Carrera may be overshadowed by the rest of the 911 range these days, but it’s still a fantastic sports car with some real bite. Its 3.0-litre, twin turbocharged flat-six engine produces 394hp and 450Nm of torque; enough for a 0-62 time of 3.9 seconds with the Sport Chrono package and its eight-speed PDK gearbox.

The 992-generation Carrera may be the biggest yet, but it still weighs in at a reasonable 1520kg for its size. A lot of Porsche buyers don’t even give the Carrera a second glance these days, opting for an S or higher – but this entry-level model is as pure a 911 as you can get, even if prices start at nearly £100,000.

Ford Mustang Shelby GT350

The Shelby GT350 is a different beast altogether. It’s an American icon, just like the stars and stripes, apple pie and the Hoover Dam. It’s got an engine the size of the Hoover Dam too; a 5.2 litre ‘Voodoo’ V8 which puts out 526hp and a whopping 582Nm of torque. A lot of performance for a car that cost around £50,000 when it was new in 2019.

This particular GT350 has been tuned and now produces 600hp and 597Nm, but its six-speed manual gearbox is nowhere near as slick as the Porsche’s PDK and it weighs around 160kg more than the Carrera too.

It could go either way here, a bit of David vs Goliath situation. Will the GT350’s brute force and power be enough to overcome the Carrera’s rear-engined traction and high precision gear changes? You’ll have to watch the video to find out…

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