It's not a great match, but it's spectacular.
In the latest of the This VS That Hoonigan video series, where Rob Dahm takes on all kinds of fast vehicles on the drag strip with his insanely-tuned rotary FD generation Mazda RX-7, he goes up against a drag-tuned V8-powered Ram truck that's assisted by two bottles of nitrous. Once you get past the obnoxious energy-drink bro' hype, you can see it's an exciting match-up.
The 2015 Ram 1500 SRT packs a 5.7-liter V8 aided by two 10-pound bottles of nitrous for injection to make a claimed 700 horsepower to the rear wheels while weighing in at 4,900 pounds. Dahm's RX-7 is all-wheel-drive, and its rotary engine has an extra two rotors over a stock FD and makes a dyno-displayed 1,000 hp.
As well as a race-level four-rotor engine, Dahm's RX-7 weighs just 3,500 pounds and features a 6-speed sequential box versus the Ram's eight-speed auto. It's an exciting matchup because it's such a mismatch. It's a heavy truck with a modified engine, coil springs, and a set of Viking drag tires versus a stripped-out and fully-built RX-7.
So, by how much does the RX-7 win?
The answer is predictable. They ran twice over different distances. At 1,000 feet, with Dahm getting a great start, he obliterated the Ram on the first run. The second run was 500 feet, with Dahm starting a car length behind as he won the first round. Dahm just flat-out made the truck look slow on the second run.
The length of races in the series changes from challenger to challenger, seemingly with this one being shorter to favor the truck's torque and lessen the RX-7's aero advantage. However, Dahm's RX-7, while shown not to be unbeatable in other videos, is just too ferocious for the truck.
Even though the race was unnecessary, hearing Dahm's RX-7 scream like a Mazda 787B race car is always a pleasure. Having a big V8 backing track only makes it sound better. The video's highlight is getting a good look under the hood and inside the RX-7.
The built motor has a 42mm turbo in front of the differential, sourced from a BMW. Other features include the same suspension setup as the legendary Hoonicorn Mustang, some wild aero, a Hollinger RD6 sequential transmission, and variable control over the front-rear power balance. That means Dahl can set his RX-7 to have a pure-rear-wheel drive setup up to a 50/50 power split.
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