Here’s a question for you, Which is faster, a Porsche or a plane? In a publicity stunt seemingly pulled from the scripts of SPEED TV’s “Pinks All Out”, The Changi GP Festival (the events leading up the the F1 Grand Prix in Singapore) will attempt to answer the question at Changi Airport.
The original story I read, in Singapore’s Straits Times , mentioned a a 2010 Porsche GT3 to be pitted against a jet engined cargo plane to promote the launch of the race-ready Porsche (not to mention some much needed entertainment at the otherwise extremely conservative airport). Trust me, I’ve flown in and out of Changi more times than I care to remember and the most excitement I ever saw there was some young girl trying to hide her gum as we passed through customs. Singapore’s a very conservative country where you can get cained for chewing gum and the entry visas remind you that the punishment for smuggling drugs (almost any kind of drug) is death.
But I digress. The publicity stunt promotion will actually consist of Porsche Carrera Cup car based on Porsche’s most powerful naturally aspirated production model (the GT3 with 435 hp) drag racing against a Jett8 747-200F cargo plane as it prepares to take off. While the event does coincide with the Asian Launch of the 2010 Porsche GT3, it is set-up as part of the larger and overall month long motorsport madness leading up to the Singapore F1.
Don’t think it’s a fair match? Not so fast. According to aviation literature, a fully loaded 747 reaches a ground speed of around 189mph in about 20 seconds or so, before it lifts off from the runway: The production GT3 has a top speed of 194 MPH. That gives the Porsche a thin margin to nose in front of the 747’s cockpit before it lifts off from the runway. The question is, how fast can it get there? The cargo plane will not be loaded in this exercise of speed.
The latest production GT3, packing 430Nm of torque that can be put to good use via a six-speed manual gearbox, reaches 60mph in 4.0 seconds flat and will see 125mph in 12.3 seconds. Its 3.8-liter engine hits the redline at 8,500rpm. While the GT3 is not Porsche’s fastest production street car, neither is the 747 the fastest plane around (in the air, it reaches a top speed of 594mph).
The outcome of the showdown rests largely on 27-year-old Yuey Tan, the newest and youngest driver at the Singapore leg of this year’s Porsche Carrera Cup. Here’s what I want to know? Are they racing for Pinks???
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[Source: Singapore StraitTimes.com, ChannelNewsAsia.com ChangaiAirport.com]