Are These High-Horsepower Family Sleepers FASTER Than Sports Cars?

This video is brought to you by Grainger Motors, where you can save up to $1,300 on a factory extended warranty on your new Ford or Ram Jeep Chrysler vehicle. Not that long ago, if you wanted a fast car, dare I say quick, you would either get a sports car or a hot hatch, but no longer the case, isn't that right? Times are changing and we've got some pretty fast family haulers these days. Yeah, so we're here at our drag strip to find out if indeed the sports car is still the king of the hill, or if two family haulers are quicker. Representing the family cars, and this is a long one, both car and model name, we've got the Volvo V60, all wheel drive, Polestar engineered wagon, and of course, next to it is the Ford Explorer ST, basically the same powertrain as in the Ranger Raptor, and representing the sports cars, we've got our proverbial champion, the BMW i8, which happens to be a plug-in hybrid, just like the Volvo, and finally, the brand new Corolla GR automatic, just like the i8. This should be a fun series of drag races to see which of these is going to be the champion. Hey Case, this drag race is more interesting than people might think at first blush, because I have a three cylinder. I also have a three cylinder, but whose idea was it to put these cars next to each other? They're very different. They are, but here's another similarity. Did you know I only weigh, or this car only weighs, two pounds less than yours? Yeah, they do weigh actually a similar amount. To be fair, they are both three cylinders, as you pointed out, but the power difference is a little dramatic. Well, hold on there, my three cylinder, 1.5 liter, only makes about 230 horsepower, so. Yeah, but that's not all, is it? No, I do have an electric motor that rolls the front wheels with another 144 horsepower for a combined 369. How about you? Well, I've only got 300 horsepower, 295 pound-feet of torque, and this is the newest GR Corolla that Toyota just sent to us, which actually has an eight-speed automatic transmission. Not quite the most exciting transmission for an enthusiast, but that's what we've got. Well, I've got two less gears in my automatic, I have a six-speed automatic. Shall we do this? Yeah, I would say so. I think for the power difference, I'm going to bank on just raw driving talent to get through that 70 horsepower gap between these cars. Let's see if that works. Yeah, but I've probably got at least 50 pounds on you. Now, this i8 has what BMW calls e-boost, which basically means that I can use all 144 horsepower that the electric motor provides to give me the fastest launch, but there's more. To really get a quick quarter-mile time, what I can do is I can put it in drive and then flick it over to sport mode, which turns on my little three-cylinder, and then I deactivate traction control, which is now off, which means the car's in sport traction. And to launch it, all I have to do is firmly put my foot on the brake, firmly put my foot on the gas, and then just let go of the brake, and we're off like a startled rabbit. On this GR Corolla, I'm going to go into track mode and turn off the traction control. Right there, it says expert, so we're pretty extreme. Yeah, I'm in track mode, traction control off, I'm going to use launch control, and I even turned my AC off. That's how serious I am. All right, I am in drive, I'm putting it in sport, and I'm going to use launch control as well. So, Cole, when you're ready, start us. It's funny, you let off the brake, and there's a little delay in it actually putting the power down. Oh, bye-bye. Bye-bye. I can't see him. Oh, I can see my mirror now. He's way back there. Not that that really matters, because there's nothing I can do. I'll watch him walk away from me with that extra 70 horsepower. Yeah, go figure. The car's way the same. They're both all-wheel-drive. No, and, you know, there's a little bit of a delay when you let off the brake before the car actually really starts to go, but not that that really would have made the difference. I mean, 70 extra horsepower, the car's way the same. They're both all-wheel-drive. We're a mile above sea level here, unprepped surface, and the solo DLs that we use to record our times usually record a second or two slower than what you'll get with the traps at a quarter-mile drag strip, but it's a definitive win there for the BMW, no surprise. Yeah, the solo DL doesn't use roll-out, so that's why they're a little bit slower, and like you said, this has 144 horsepower that are non-internal combustion engines, so it's not affected by altitude. Do you want to try one more without launch control? Sure, we certainly can. If you plan on keeping your vehicle for a long time, we recommend getting an extended warranty, and Grainger is the number one seller of Ford Protect warranties. Grainger provides factory-backed warranties, which means repairs are done by factory-trained technicians who know your vehicle inside out and are trained to repair known issues. So the next time you buy a new car from Ford or Ram, Jeep, Dodge, and even Chrysler, contact Grainger Motors for an extended factory warranty that can save you an average of $1,300 off the list price. Let's do one more race with, you know, using whatever method you want to get the best launch. Sounds good, yeah, I won't use traction control either. I'm definitely using traction control again. Roman has cheated in drag races before, so I'm going to do the same. I'm going to get him back. You won't be upset. But I feel like I can cheat a little bit on this drag race and still keep my job. All right, are you ready for race two? There's nothing I can do. I'm even trying to jump him off the line a little bit. And, yeah, it's just, yeah, well, whatever, man. Oh, he got it. Look, jump on me, but it doesn't matter. The guy ain't off. So much quicker. Across the line. I may have used traction control there to see if I could keep my way to being ahead for at least a moment, and it still didn't work. Well, I ran a 13 second quarter mile at 111 miles an hour. So the question case is, are the family haulers quicker than the sports car or the hot hatch? Yeah, we've got a couple more cars to try out to see if something that we've brought can beat that fairly lightweight BMW, at least relative to everything else here that's got four doors. All right, tell you what. How about this? I'll take the Ford Explorer ST, and you take the Volvo, and that way you'll have the horsepower advantage for the second race. You know, that is very thoughtful of you, and I appreciate it. Plus, you'll have the plug-in hybrid. Yeah, and you know what? Well, everything we're testing here, I guess, has a turbo today. But the Volvo is twin-charged, isn't it? The Volvo used to be a super turbo, and for this generation, it's just a turbo turbo. But it's an electric turbo. Oh, that's heartbreaking. All right, let's go jump in the family haulers and see if they are indeed as quick or quicker than our sports cars. All right, Case. Guess what? I've got the same powertrain that's in our Ranger Raptor in this Explorer ST, and that is a V6 turbocharged engine that puts out 400 horsepower. Yeah, that's cool and all, but I've got a pretty neat hybrid system to pair with this two-liter four-cylinder, and hey, I know that doesn't sound like a ton, but listen to this output. 455 horsepower, and I've got 523 pound-feet of torque. I've got more than 100 extra torques than you. Oh, yeah? Well, let me ask you a trivia question. What does Polestar mean? Oh, I don't know. Is it a star that's near the pole? Close. North star. Polestar is Swedish for north star. I think I was pretty close. You were pretty close. All right, let's see what you think of these two behemoths. Actually, this is a behemoth, but that is just a technological tour de force. Let's see which is quicker. To get the most out of this Polestar, we're gonna use the Polestar engineered mode because apparently it optimizes acceleration and gearshift response. The Explorer ST doesn't really have a drag strip mode, but it does have drive mode, so let me show those to you. All right, so I've got this rotary dial and I can choose from light off-roading to wet, icy, snowy roads to balanced everyday driving, fishing driving, towing over here, but the mode that I really want is what Ford calls the spirited on-road driving, or in this case, spirited drag strip driving. This is a very strange matchup. The brakes don't really hold it. All right, here we go. He's got me. Oh my God. Whoa. No wonder the brakes don't hold it. It's fast. That is massively quick off the line. Jeez. Going from the GR Corolla to that is a big difference. Wow. That's quick. I'm impressed. This is definitely gonna beat the i8. Dude, it's so funny going from the GR Corolla to this. The GR Corolla had absolutely no problem with me going foot to the floor on the accelerator while holding the brakes and staying in place. This, the brakes cannot hold it. Not even close. This car is quick. Yeah, I'm gonna give this not the ST badge. I'm gonna give it the S badge. It's an Explorer S. It's, you know, for an ST, I'd expect a little bit more oomph. It just feels, you know, I wouldn't say leisurely, but certainly not, you know, crazy quick. Yeah, you're gonna subtract the T, give it a demerit? Yeah, that's exactly right. So, as far as I'm concerned, this is the Explorer S. I'm still waiting for the ST. All right, Case, this is for the champion of the day, the big kahuna, the fastest vehicle out here. Sport car or family hauler, but here's something interesting. You've got almost 100 horsepower more than I do, but you also weigh, get this, 771 pounds more than this i8. Yeah, it is a lot heavier, but this car is not to be counted out. This thing is stupid quick, and I'm wagering that I'm gonna win this. I think I've got real good odds. Plug-in hybrid versus plug-in hybrid, all-wheel drive versus all-wheel drive. And actually, your car is $22,000 more expensive. Well, what was the sticker on that BMW? Well, I got it for $49,000. Yeah, but what was the sticker? I mean, I don't know, $150,000 or something. Oh, yeah, this is only $73,000, a bargain by comparison. Fair that. All right, let's go for it. Oh, he's got me off the line. Oh, there's no way. There's no way that that i8 is that quick. I don't accept this at all. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Oh, yeah. I may have jumped it a little bit, but it didn't matter. I was still pulling away from you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you did. That's fair. Wow, I'm surprised by that because this Polestar is really quick. I was genuinely confident. You know, people give the i8 so much crap, right? They say it's got a three-cylinder, it writes a check, it can't cash. And yet, you know, nine years later, it's still the quickest car out here. That is one of those cars I think we found in some other drag races, like doing it up against a Mustang, that is a lot quicker in real life than it seems like it would be on paper. Yeah, you're exactly right. I mean, you know, a combination of a relatively small battery, carbon fiber tub, and, you know, enough horsepower to not be weighed down by a lot of weight, which it doesn't have, makes it super quick and actually much quicker than people give it credit for. Yeah, I think that lightweight helped it off the line, and then it had enough power from that combined output on your hybrid system to stay ahead. It's pretty impressive. All right, well, let's give our final thoughts and get back out there in the wind. So what have we learned, Case? Well, nothing really useful because these cars are very different. Their prices are all over the place, horsepower is all over the place, but I'll tell you what, we're just a couple of guys with some cars, some cameras, and a runway, so what do they expect us to do? Have fun. Yeah, exactly. And we've learned that a nine-year-old BMW is still a rock. It's actually pretty quick. See you guys next time. Ciao.