We all know that racing is about the machinery and the driver working together. Not knowing all that much about drag racing, though, I’ve certainly wondered how much impact a driver can really have on the outcome of a race.

The impact, it turns out, can be pretty big. CarWow has just put an R8 up against an RS Q8 on the standing quarter-mile to see what happens.


Now, look, even Host Mat Watson admits that the R8 should win, but the R8 is being driven by someone who hasn’t done much racing. So Watson wonders if he can keep the RS Q8 ahead. And he does!

For one race, anyway, the RS Q8 actually manages to stay ahead of the R8 despite it weighing 1,500 fewer lbs. Naturally, given another chance, the R8 easily beats the RS Q8 even though the SUV beats the supercar off the line. And on this very channel, the R8 has been clocked finishing the quarter-mile about a second faster than either of the runs in this video.

So yes, the R8 is much faster than the RSQ8, but that doesn’t mean you’ll always win in a race. Machinery can win a race, but drivers can always lose it.