Over time, the Hoonigan YouTube channel's notorious 'This versus That' series has morphed into a not-so-traditional drag racing story, but this episode comes back to the 'classic' roots of 'America versus Import.' More precisely, it's a built muscle car against a fully modded JDM sports car, of course.
Everyone probably knows the 'Hoonigan' guys because of their involvement with the dearly departed Ken Block, who was the man, the driver, and the legend Head Hoonigan In Charge (HHIC) until his untimely demise last year. It's great to see that the beautiful yet slightly unhinged team, in the jester spirit of their friend and mentor, has continued the 'party' with the same poise and aplomb – and that includes lots of content on their channel.
Over the past couple of months, they have been very busy filming crazy stuff and doing bonkers things on the trails – they didn't interrupt the off-road shenanigans for anything other than Ken Block's Gymkhana Anthology, which brings together 15 years of automotive action film excellence (it's embedded second below if you missed it). However, a few days ago, they decided to camp in Texas at the iconic Texas Motorplex in Ennis, 40 miles south of downtown Dallas, and rocked the boat with a 1,800-hp Chevy Camaro No Prep King that dragged a 1,500-hp twin-turbo Ford F-150.
Oh, yeah, we embedded that one third below, just in case you also missed that one. Now, on to the main course. This time around, their opponents are a little more traditional – a muscle car and a sports car/GT. However, as always, there's more than the appearance. So, the hoodless black monster is an S197 Ford Mustang from 2012 that doesn't sport a Coyote – instead, it's a 5.3-liter LS swap that will surely divide the Blue Oval and GM audience.
It packs around 1,200 horsepower sent through a two-speed auto tranny to the rear wheels, and the assembly is stripped to the bare essentials to a weight of around 3,200 pounds. In the other corner resides a 2016 Nissan GT-R powered by a stroked 4.1-liter twin-turbo six-banger with 1,500 horsepower to the wheels. It's an AWD monster, but it also weighs 'a bit more' at 3,990 pounds. As such, it's no wonder that the predictions are equally balanced – the Mustang is less powerful, RWD, and lighter, while the GT-R is more potent, AWD, and way heavier.
As always, they do a two-out-of-three race format, and the car plus driver who won the first round were gracious enough to give the initial loser a two-car advantage on the start line. Well, as it turns out, that wasn't enough, and the absolute destruction occurred twice, even though only marginally during round two, as the winner also had to recoup the entire distance between them! Now, don't slack around; play the video to see who won – America or the import?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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