Carmakers like to pound their chests with Nurburgring lap times when it comes to how fast their cars are, while automotive journos tend to take those cars and measure them against each other in perhaps the most telling form of competition: the good ‘ol drag race.
Naturally, such a staged drag race isn’t always about gas-guzzling muscle cars or heavily-modded vehicles that put out in excess of 1,000 horsepower. We’ve seen econoboxes taking forever to complete the quarter-mile all in the name of fun, so when someone pits the Ford Mustang GT Fastback against the new Toyota Supra and BMW Z4, all we can do is watch and enjoy.
How come a V-8 Mustang gets to race against the inline-six-powered Supra and Z4?
The video you’re about to see comes from Car Magazine South Africa. Now, down in South Africa, the three coupes are similarly priced at around 1 million rand, which is about $67,286 at current exchange rates. That aside, we’d like to have a look at specs whenever such a duel comes to our attention because honestly, price isn’t that significant here.
On that note, the rear-wheel-drive 2020 Toyota Supra is powered by a turbocharged 3-liter inline-six engine making 335 horsepower and 368 pound-feet of torque (500 Newton-meters). The unit is twinned to an eight-speed automatic gearbox, which allows the Japanese sports car to dispatch the 0-60 mph interval in 4.1 seconds.
The BMW Z4 used for this particular drag race is none other than the range-topping M40i model. As most of you know by now, it uses the exact same engine as the Toyota Supra and therefore, we’re looking at the same set of figures: engine power comes in at 335 horsepower, with torque rated at 368 pound-feet (500 Newton-meters). Just like it’s the case with the Supra, those resources are sent to the rear wheels by an eight-speed Steptronic Sport gearbox. As far as the Z4 M40i is concerned, the 0-60 mph sprint takes 3.9 seconds, making it 0.2 seconds quicker than the Supra - at least on paper, that is.
There are, however, other things to consider here. For example, the BMW Z4 M40i has a curb weight of 3,443 pounds (the gross vehicle weight is 4,092 pounds) while the Toyota Supra’s curb weight is 3,397 pounds (gross weight is 4,001 pounds). As you can see, the two cousins sport rather similar figures, which brings us to the outsider of this duel.
In GT Fastback guise, the Ford Mustang uses a 5-liter naturally-aspirated V-8 engine that churns out 460 horsepower and 420 pound-feet (570 Newton-meters) of torque which are sent to the rear wheels by either a six-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic gearbox. Now, the Ford Mustang GT Fastback has a curb weight of 4,475 pounds when fitted with the 10-speed automatic transmission (a similar model is used in the drag race we’re discussing here), but Ford doesn’t specify its gross weight. In any case, the Mustang GT is the heaviest of the bunch here, but also considerably more powerful than the Z4 and Supra.
It’s also worth noted that the SA-spec Mustang GT makes do with just 444 horsepower (331 kW) and 520 Newton-meters of twist (which is about 383 pound-feet of torque), enough to reach 60 mph from a standstill in 4.1 seconds. Either way, that’s still way more oomph than what you’d get from the BMW Z4 M40i and the Toyota GR Supra.
Now, about which car gets to win this drag race, it’s best that you find out from the video below. What we’ll add, however, is that we were expected the Ford Mustang to put up a serious fight, which it didn’t. Or perhaps it’s the driver choice that slowed down the muscle car. Go see for yourselves.
Further Reading
Read our full driven review on the 2019 Ford Mustang GT.
Read our full review on the 2020 Toyota Supra.
Read our full review on the 2019 BMW Z4.