Unique drag races: jet vs car vs bike vs boat

[Craig 94 TA GT]

I found a few cool videos - I know comparing apples to oranges, but it's cool to see a jet vs a car vs a bike, etc.

Champ Car vs Jet (F-18?) (0 to ~200+ mph) http://youtube.com/watch?v=Wj8HBwQdggY
I do know that the Jet in the standing mile hits 300 mph, while the CART car goes about 200-220.

F1 vs superbike vs speed boat http://youtube.com/watch?v=nZkhP6ZssSU
Here, you obviously can see that it's hard to beat a race car with around a 0.7 power/weight ratio.

Bike vs Jet vs Porsche http://youtube.com/watch?v=45Q9vg-ML9c

[Dave Vince]

Different kind of races though interesting.
Noted that of the vehicles were drag bikes, cars or boats. All were much slower than thier drag race counterparts.
The plane will win if the race is long enough against any wheeled vehicle.

[Talon04]

Jets are horrible at spool ups. Jet turbines take a bit to get up to speed, but when they do they own. From a roll the Jet might have had a chance, but you never know. The last video also proved that, given distance the jet will win every time.

[Craig 94 TA GT]

If you want to be specific in the comparison:
___________Champ Car______________F-18 Hornet_________
1/4 mile 9.9 sec @ 161.4 mph--------11.9 sec @ 154.2 mph
1/2 mile 15.0 sec @ 188.3 mph-------16.7 sec @ 218.0 mph
3/4 mile 19.7 sec @ 196.2 mph-------20.4 sec @ 267.1 mph
1 mile 24.2 sec @ 203.3 mph--------23.6 sec @ 308.3 mph

Obviously, the Champ car's downforce is it's enemy here. An F1 car will be a bit quicker as it runs around 9.x@180+ mph in the 1320. So in the standing mile, it appears that the F-18 would probably only lose to top end drag cars, maybe Pro Stock and quicker. The only human driven land vehicle I can see that has more power to weight is a top fueler (7000+ hp to 2120 lbs) vs F-18 (estimated 50,000 hp to 24000 lbs).

[Joe 1320]

Years ago, there was a timed drag race between Kenny Bernstein's top fueler and a carrier launched fighter. The top fueler won within the timings of the quarter mile. Keep in mind that the plane was launched with a catapault.

[Craig 94 TA GT]

That's the info I was looking for, Joe! Do you have any articles on that? There are so many people on other boards who claim that a catapulted fighter jet will own everything, and easily beat a top fueler. There's no way in my mind, as I've always known the top fueler to be the fastest. But I've always wanted to shove the evidence in their face - then watch them become speechless

[Joe 1320]

I have a copy of the magazine stored somewhere, it was an amazing feature article. I believe it was Car and Driver, but I'll have to do some digging though a vast collection to find it. Rest assured it was Kenny Bernstein's top fueler that owned the fighter. He didn't win by much, and after the 1/4 mile the jet was the king.

[Christopherrr]

If you want to be specific in the comparison:
___________Champ Car______________F-18 Hornet_________
1/4 mile 9.9 sec @ 161.4 mph--------11.9 sec @ 154.2 mph
1/2 mile 15.0 sec @ 188.3 mph-------16.7 sec @ 218.0 mph
3/4 mile 19.7 sec @ 196.2 mph-------20.4 sec @ 267.1 mph
1 mile 24.2 sec @ 203.3 mph--------23.6 sec @ 308.3 mph

Holy crap! Champ cars are fast!!!

[Craig 94 TA GT]

Holy crap! Champ cars are fast!!!

I think the one they tested had a bit more downforce than usual. Popular Mechanics tested a CART car in 1998 and clocked it at
0-30: 2.1
0-60: 3.69
1/4 mile: 9.3@165
which is a bit faster than the 9.9@161 listed previously. I wonder if, in that trim, it would be able to beat the F-18. Or maybe CART recently had a "detune" in hp, making it slower, running the 9.9. I'm not quite sure since I'm not an avid fan of CART.

Just for comparison, an IRL car was clocked at 10.0@153, while Jaguar lists their F1 car at 9.4@181. Ferrari supposedly claims their F1 runs 7s to 8s in the 1/4 mile when clocking it in a race vs a Eurofighter. I find that very hard to believe considering they ran that test in the rain, those tiny motors don't have much torque, and I highly doubt it's going to be up to 2 seconds faster than a similarly matched CART car.

A couple more:
Saleen S7 Twin Turbo
1/4 mile: 10.8@139
1/2 mile: 16.5@172
3/4 mile: 21.4@193
1 mile: 25.9@206

Henessey Viper TT 1000 hp
1/4 mile: 11.0@145.5
1/2 mile: 16.5@178
3/4 mile: 21.2@196
1 mile: 25.6@210