Electric vehicles usually rule the drag strip these days, often easily out-accelerating comparable internal combustion-engined vehicles, making them heroes when it comes to short bursts of acceleration. However, even when the EV is more powerful than the vehicles it faces in a drag race, it is not automatically quicker, as this video pitting a Rivian R1T against a Porsche Cayenne and Aston Martin DBX reveals.
Hagerty lined up the most powerful Rivian R1T, with the 835 horsepower quad-motor setup, against the Porsche Cayenne Coupe Turbo GT and an Aston Martin DBX 707. The latter two are the most powerful variants for each respective model, with the Porsche being able to sprint to sixty in 2.8 seconds, partly thanks to its very aggressive tires, which are basically sticky slicks that are just legal for road use.
In the actual drag race, the Porsche shoots off ahead of the other two vehicles, with the Aston Martin close on its tail. The latter does start gaining on the Porsche, but thanks to its simply amazing ability to hurl itself off the line, it builds enough of a lead to stay ahead until the end of the race.
The Rivian is actually the slowest to get off the line, even with its four individual motors, highest power output of the group and the instant availability of torque. What drags it back in this race is its weight - this is a 7,068-lb / 3,205-kg vehicle - as well as its electronically limited to speed of 110 mph / 177 km/h, which given its power it reaches quite early on in the race at which point it really starts to fall back compared to the other two.
They also had the new Maserati MC-20 on hand to compare against the winner of the drag race, which was the Cayenne. Interestingly, the two vehicles tie, with the all-wheel drive Porsche shooting off the line quicker than the rear-wheel drive Maserati, which then has to play catch up and doesn’t quite have the power to take the win by the end of the run.
