From the Vaults: F1 vs Road Car Showdown

In this classic video that pre-dates the type of challenges seen on Top Gear, they put a Porsche 928 up against an everyday Ford Sierra, as well as a Formula 1 race car. While it sounds like a dreadfully mismatched group of vehicles, what makes the clip truly special is the drivers of the cars. The Ford Sierra was driven by James Hunt and the F1 car by Niki Lauda. If those names sound familiar, that’s because they were the Formula 1 frenemies who were at the center of the racing world back in 1976, and were famously documented in Ron Howard’s excellent film Rush. Driving the Porsche was another excellent F1 racer, John Watson who never took a championship, but was on the podium numerous times.

To even the playing field, both road cars in the video get massive head starts to the F1 car – which was a pre-turbo model. Heck, Lauda even has time to grab a cup of coffee before he heads out to see if he can catch the other cars.