The Honda S2000 and Toyota GR86 are incredibly well matched, making for a fun drag race.
for Sebastian Bell
2 hours ago
for Sebastian Bell
Spoiler alert: This is one of the closest drag racing videos we’ve ever seen. And that’s impressive, when you consider that the Honda S2000 went out of production more than a decade before the second-generation Toyota GR86 was introduced.
On the other hand, none of these cars were primarily designed to push the limits of what is possible with engineering. Instead, they were designed to push the limits of how much fun their riders can have, and this race is no exception.
Both Honda and Toyota (and Subaru) landed with pretty much the same formula. Small car, small engine and rear wheel drive, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that the race is close.
Read: Can the 2023 Toyota GR Corolla beat the Honda Civic Type R in a drag race?
For Honda, that meant a 2.0-liter inline-four that made 237 hp (177 kW/241 PS) and 153 lb-ft (207 Nm) of torque when new. The car in question, however, is quite a bit older, meaning it’s covered roughly 46,000 miles (74,000 km) since it left the factory, and has undoubtedly lost a few horses along the way.
Meanwhile, the Toyota GR86 will likely still have all the 233 hp (174 kW/236 PS) and 184 lb-ft (250 Nm) of torque its 2.4-liter four-cylinder boxer engine can muster. What’s perhaps more impressive than the S2000 having more horses than the GR86, however, is that the new car weighs exactly the same amount as the older one, at 2,756 pounds (1,250 kg).
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So the Honda has a bit more power, the Toyota has more torque; the S2000 spins a bit higher, the GR86 has accelerated much less; and both weigh exactly the same amount. If that’s not the foundation of a good drag race, I don’t know what is.
And indeed, the first two races are neck and neck, with the cars trading a win back and forth, leaving it all for a winner-takes-all final drag race to see which is the best (previously) affordable sports car. Watch the video below to see which one wins.
