Old versus new drag races are always interesting even when one of the contenders seems to be heavily outgunned. With that in mind, Hoonigan is giving us another “This vs Plaid” drag race, and this time, the challenger is a Japanese legend – the Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R. Despite Godzilla being severely outmatched, the 12-year-old in me is still rooting for it. Here’s how it holds up to the Tesla Model S Plaid.

Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R

Finished in Midnight Purple 2 exterior shade, this is one of the most desired R34 GT-R specs. Brad, the owner of the car, imported this R34 under the “Show and display” condition, which means he can drive it only 2,500 miles per year. He also has other JDM legends, among which, an R33 GT-R, two R32 GT-Rs, an NSX, R35, and others.

This particular GT-R is “basically stock”. The car was built by Driver Motorsport and features plenty of custom titanium parts, most notably the strut-tower brace. There’s a big single turbo, which helps the RB26 DETT make 650 horsepower. Those go to all four wheels through a Getrag, six-speed manual. Suspension-wise, the Skyline sits on KW coil-overs but also has an air-lift kit. The R34 weighs 3,432 pounds (1,556 kg).

Tesla Model S Plaid

For the record, the Tesla Model S Plaid has three electric motors with a combined output of 1,020 horsepower and 1,050 pound-feet (1,424 Nm). In reality, the Tesla Plaid is proven to be capable of 1,101 horsepower, but the numbers are not consistent. Tesla has a single-speed automatic so no shifting is required. At 4,828 pounds (2,190 kg), the Tesla is heavier, but it’s noticeably more aerodynamic.

The race

As always it’s best out of three races at 1,000 feet. The first race is heads-up, just to see where the cars are at, performance-wise. As expected, the much more powerful Tesla Plaid wins the race, by a lot. The GT-R had an epic soundtrack, though.

For the second race, the Tesla runs in “Chill mode”, which is exactly what it sounds like. The Skyline wins this one, easily, equaling the score. To put things in perspective, in Chill mode, the Plaid goes from a nine-second car to a 15-second car. No surprise then, Godzilla won round two.

For round three, Tesla goes into Sport mode, which changes everything. The Nissan actually stayed with the Plaid, on the start, but once they got up to speed, the Tesla was gone. Tesla’s single-speed automatic means no shifting, unlike the GT-R, which has a six-speed manual.

At the end of the day, the Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R lost gracefully. We all knew it would happen, given the power difference, but the 12-year-old in me is still silently crying about it. Hopefully, Brad makes a comeback with a 1,000-horsepower R34 GT-R so we can have an actual R34 vs Plaid drag race.