- Drag race video pits the Kia EV6 GT against a Ferrari Purosangue.
- The two cars are evenly matched on paper, with a slight power-to-weight advantage to the Ferrari.
- The Kia beats the Ferrari every time.
Rooting for the underdog is an automatic winning ticket in a straight-line drag race between the revised Kia EV6 GT and the fire-snorting Ferrari Purosangue. These two vehicles do look a bit alike, but one is electric, while the other uses a monster of a naturally aspirated V12 engine, and the latter also costs several times more.
The UK’s Carwow pitted the two in a drag race, showing how paying more these days doesn’t necessarily mean you get more performance. The Kia EV6 GT features a revised dual-motor powertrain that now pushes 641 horsepower (with temporary overboost) and 568 pound-feet of torque, which gives it a claimed acceleration time from 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) in a claimed 3.5 seconds with launch control enabled.
However, independent tests have shown it to be a few tenths quicker to sprint, which explains why it can beat the 715-hp Purosangue, whose claimed sprint time to sixty is 3.3 seconds.
Throughout all of the runs in the video, the Kia not only pounces off the line quicker than the Ferrari, but it also increases its lead throughout.
Ferrari claims a 4,482-pound (2,033 kg) dry weight for the Purosangue, but Car and Driver weighed one and found it was closer to 4,850 lbs (2,200 kg). The second figure almost perfectly matches the Kia’s claimed weight, which is 4,884 lbs (2,215 kg).
So the EV6 GT has a lower power-to-weight ratio but 60 lb-ft more total torque than the Purosangue.
It has no trouble keeping the Ferrari behind it, run after run. The only time the Ferrari wins is when host Mat Watson switches the car into the driving mode that simulates the power delivery of a combustion engine, complete with fake gear changes. This was only for one run when the Ferrari sped ahead and won, but it was not a representation of the Kia’s full performance potential.
The Ferrari Purosangue costs over $395,000 without any options, while the Kia EV6 GT has a starting price of $65,275. That makes the Italian stallion almost exactly six times more expensive, and even with its signature design, lavish interior and luxurious toys, it becomes kind of hard to justify, although Purosangue buyers also pay into the badge and its aura.
The fact that a Kia can show it a clean pair of taillights in an outright acceleration run really says a lot about today’s performance car scene and how dramatically it has changed over the last decade.