“Because we can” is the reason we gave for doing World’s Greatest Drag Race the first time, eight years ago. Now it’s more like, “Because we’d be crazy not to.”
We love it, you love it, and apparently so do the fine airmen of the 30th Space Wing, headquartered at Vandenberg Air Force Base; this is the third year in a row they’ve agreed to host our madness. This explains how we ended up with our 12 Best Driver’s Cars lined up and revving on the clean, grooved concrete of America’s fourth-longest runway.
How do we improve upon that combination? By taking the entire 12-car field to the half-mile and adding a German comedian, a Polish car collector, and the world’s luckiest Australian dentist to the mix. Yes, we put the aforementioned colleagues from the German and Polish affiliates of MotorTrend, Axel Stein and Patryk Mikiciuk, behind the wheels of the AMG GT 63 S and Bentley Continental GT V8. For fun and for free dental work for the rest of my life, I let my cousin Quang take my spot in the drag race in the fun but relatively slow BMW M2 Competition (editor-in-chief privilege in full effect).
The real question is what happens when you take 12 cars and double the 1,320? We don’t regularly test acceleration to the half mile, so we didn’t know who would win when we first pulled onto the tarmac at Vandenberg. Sure, we had our guesses, but only in the race could we confirm for sure.
Which production car gets faster after the quarter? Which one runs out of breath? Once the 797-hp Hellcat Redeye hooks up, surely it shows its taillights to the field, right? Or is it the DBS Superleggera and its twin-turbo V-12 that most effectively uses its 700-plus horsepower? Will the track specialist Senna be held back by all of its downforce-inducing fins and wings? Will any of the cars capable of 200 mph even come close at the checkered flag? So many questions.
When you’re ready to bring to life the raw and righteous riot of 48 tires and nearly 7,000 horsepower igniting on the word go, head to MotorTrend.com/bdc to watch World’s Greatest Drag Race 9.
I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. But if you are, hit me up on Twitter @edloh, and I’ll send you some swag—if I believe you.
