The folks at ‘Carwow’ brought two Ford Mustangs to the drag strip. One of them is the 760-horsepower Shelby Mustang GT500, and the other, a Clive Sutton Mustang that makes 850 horses. Can the Sutton-tuned Mustang get an easy win, or will the Shelby GT500 defy the odds and pin its rival down? Let’s find out.

We’re Looking At Over 1,600 Horses Combined

A seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox drives the rear wheels exclusively. The car is pretty heavy, standing in at 4,189 pounds (1,900 kilos).

Power is routed to the rear wheels here also, but via a six-speed manual gearbox.

How Did The Races Go?

Both the cars got off to good starts, but at the first gear shift, the CS850 GT struggled to get traction. Being a manual that puts over 800 horses to the rear wheels only and has a tendency to fishtail, this Mustang must’ve been much harder to launch than it looks. The Shelby GT500, on the other hand, comes with launch control and a dual-clutch transmission that help make it easier to get off the line.

Coming to the race, the Shelby GT500 went on to win the race, completing the quarter-mile distance in 11.8 seconds. The CS850 GT took 12.2 seconds to touch the finish line.

Next up was the rolling race from 50 mph with the cars locked in third gear. None of the cars could get an edge at kickdown and they both stayed level for the longest time. Things changed only after they covered the quarter-mile distance during a gear shift (perhaps sixth gear for the manual Mustang), and that’s where it gave away the lead to the Shelby GT500 and eventually lost another race.

The last round was the brake test from 100 mph, and the Shelby Mustang won this one, too. It came to a halt quicker than the Clive Sutton-tuned GT500, thus claiming a clean sweep. Watch the video below and let us know if the results of this race surprised you or not.