The Ford Racing Cobra Jet features a 5.0L V8 engine topped off with a Whipple 2.9L twin-screw supercharger. And the Ford Fiesta ST has a 2.0L, 550-plus horsepower turbocharged engine under the hood.
You’d think the two wouldn’t be competitive on the dragstrip, but when would you ever have the chance to find out? In this video, of course.
Ford Racing took both cars to North Carolina’s zMAX Dragway and pitted rally driver Tanner Foust and legendary drag racer Roy Hill of Roy Hill’s Drag Racing School in a battle for the ages. Turbocharged, all-wheel-drive, custom-transmission Rally car versus supercharged small-block, rear-wheel-drive monster.
Hill is pretty confident that he’s going to win, bragging to Foust that his Cobra Jet even includes “power winders”, and once the tree drops, it becomes pretty evident that he’s right. Hill screams through the traps with an outstanding 8.99 at 152 MPH, while Foust crosses the stripe with a 10.59 at 127-plus.
The Fiesta ST’s all-wheel drive and huge-horse four-cylinder is no match for the supercharged V8, but it does excel in one area that the Cobra Jet does not – braking and handling, as Foust comes to a complete stop after passing through the traps and doing a donut before racing back to the starting line on the track surface, while Hill pulls the ‘chute and rolls to the end of the track.
We’re not sure whether zMAX’s Bruton Smith will be too happy with the new racing stripes on his track’s surface, but one thing is for sure – the little 2.0L runs an impressive time for such a small engine.
Check out this fun video, and watch two of Ford’s most prolific machines go head-to-head.