Ahead of this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, FortyOneSix.com organized this unique race between two British legends – the Supermarine Spitfire and the Range Rover:
The Vickers Supermarine Spitfire (piloted by Matt Jones from the Boultbee Flight Academy) was a 1945-vintage model powered by a 1,750-bhp V12 Merlin engine with a maximum airspeed of 400 mph or 644 kmh while the All-New Range Rover Sport was a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 model with 510 hp driven by Mike Cross, Jaguar Land Rover’s Chief Vehicle Integrity Engineer.
The race took place on a grass airstrip at the Goodwood Aerodrome in Sussex and involved a straight drag run down and back on the runway along with a U-turn. However, grass terrain is considered to be one of the most challenging terrains for a vehicle to gain traction as well as to accelerate or brake on. Nevertheless, Cross still manage to hit speeds of 130 mph or 209 kmh before having to brake for the mid-race turn.