Top Gear’s drag races are impressive for a number of reasons, chief among which is that happen at all, given the UK’s weather patterns.

The luck clearly ran out when Chris Harris was setting up to do a drag between the NSX, the 911 Turbo, and the R8 V10 Plus. The heavens opened before he could get the cars off the line so the first attempt at a drag race was aborted after the cars nearly ran into each other.



The second race doesn’t go much better. So instead he lets the R8 go singing in the rain. “It is possible to construct an argument to buy the R8 based on the engine alone,” says Harris and we couldn’t agree more. The naturally aspirated V10 launches the car easily through corners and is among the best sounding engines out there.

Even in the rain, the car is balanced and great around the corners, but oddly enough not off the line. In this weather, on the tires available, the 911 Turbo walks all over the others and does seem like Harris’s favorite. But all we said is that he doing something interesting, not being correct.