C8 Corvette Z06 vs Tesla Cybertruck: A Lesson in Why Traction Matters

Z06 vs Tesla Cybertruck: the Cybertruck is clearly quicker than the C8 Corvette Z06 from a dig, but does it really matter?

By now, we’ve seen the mighty C8 Corvette Z06 drag race just about everything there is to drag race, and in most cases, the mid-engine track-focused machine has prevailed – save for a few exotics and EVs, of course. While the Z06 was designed to do far more than just go fast in a straight line, it’s pretty darn good at that, and in this particular hobby, many of us measure a car’s worth by its 0-60 and quarter-mile times, regardless. Thus, we were interested to see just how a C8 Corvette Z06 vs Tesla Cybertruck dragstrip battle would play. Two vehicles with quite literally nothing in common.

Lucky for us, the folks over at Throttle House were able to arrange such a showdown recently, which is intriguing from the start given the fact that Tesla famously showed the Cybertruck outrunning a Porsche 911 at the drag strip while towing another 911, a result that has since been debunked in the real world. Thus, TH decided that a Z06 would be a more fitting foe for the giant, angular pickup, which is – if nothing else -perhaps the most divisive vehicle of the modern era.

The differences between these vehicles goes far deeper than skin level, as the Cybertruck is, of course, an all-electric vehicle with three motors churning out 845 horsepower, though it’s also quite heavy at 6,843 pounds. The C8 Corvette Z06, on the other hand, uses the glorious-sounding 5.5-liter LT6 V8 to make 670 horsepower, which only has to move around 3,500 pounds.

As one would imagine, in the very first race between these two machines, the Cybertruck uses its instant torque and all-wheel drive to rocket out to an early lead, building a sizable gap before claiming an easy victory – though the Z06 did make up some distance before the two crossed the finish line. The second try resulted in a better launch for the Corvette, but it just couldn’t quite catch the Cybertruck yet again, even though the two were far closer this go-round.

As is usually the case, the C8 Corvette Z06 did manage to beat the Cybertruck in a roll race, which essentially eliminates its advantages from a dig. Regardless, we pretty much expected these results, and as the TH team points out, it ultimately doesn’t matter. After all, the Z06 is a tremendous machine that is simply one of the greatest cars one can buy right now – they just suggest that if you do come across a Cybertruck in the wild that wants to race, well, perhaps it’s better to just pass on that opportunity, at least until we can get our hands on a ZR1, perhaps.

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