There are two different types of straight-line racing that you’ll typically see: drag and roll races. When you race from a drag, it’s all about torque, being able to launch and get up to speed as quickly as possible. In a roll race, both cars are travelling side-by-side, and lay down the hammer at the same time. In a roll race, horsepower plays a much bigger part of the story.
Want a perfect visual representation of how torque and horsepower can play into these races? DragTimes has a video of a Tesla Model S P100D (760 hp, 920 lb-ft of torque and AWD) racing a Toyota Supra (RWD) with 1,000 hp on tap. When you click play on the video below, you’ll see just how big of a difference factors like horsepower, torque and overall layout can make.
