Porsche 911 Turbo S Drag Races BMW M5, Litchfield Nissan GT-R

We've shared tons of drag races with you, our faithful audience, and literally every time before we've had at least a basic idea why certain cars are put against each other on the drag strip. This time, however, that's not the case, but that doesn't mean we're not going to have a lot of fun.

The folks over at Autocar have prepared a pretty unusual comparison. It includes a stock Porsche 911 Turbo S, one of the best stock cars for drag racing, the new BMW M5, one of the fastest sedans on the earth, and a Nissan GT-R tuned by Litchfield. What do these cars have in common? Well, they all have four wheels, they can go forward and backward, and have high-performance engines with a peak output in the region of 600 horsepower (447 kilowatts).

Maybe the last criteria is what puts the three cars in the same league. The M5 has 591 hp (441 kW), the 911 Turbo S comes with 572 hp (426 kW), and the tuned GT-R is the most powerful of the trio with 631 hp (470 kW). All of them are four-wheel-drive models, with twin turbos, and automatic transmissions. We're going to see some quick numbers!

In fact, the results aren't really surprising. The biggest and heaviest car of the three, the M5, is clearly the slowest, but the 911 Turbo S and the GT-R are making quite a close battle. The gap between the two is minimal – the Porsche reaches 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour) in just 6.3 seconds, 0.2 seconds quicker than the tuned GT-R, while the ½-mile run takes 16.9 seconds for the Porsche versus 17.1 seconds for the GT-R.

Two things impress us the most. First, the way heavier M5 is just about a second slower in the ½-mile run than the winner. Second, a stock 911 Turbo S still beats a tuned GT-R despite the significant power difference between the two.