Charity Drag Race Redefines The Meaning Of Fast

TAKE one airport runway and a Formula One car and it’s not hard to work out what happens next. In the case of the annual Race the Runway event held at Edinburgh airport, driving flat out in a Formula One car produced some interesting numbers.

Run by and benefiting the Prince and Princes of Wales Hospice in Glasgow, event invites owners of high performance cars – not just Formula One machines – to participate in a series of drag races in return for a donation to the Hospice.

Alongside a mouthwatering line-up of AMG-badged performance cars, event sponsor Mercedes also brought along a 2012-specification Formula One car and tame racing driver and pundit Anthony Davidson to act as Stig for the day.

It’s fair to say the road cars didn’t stand a chance, with the Mercedes F1W03 racer posting 2.9 second zero to 62mph sprint time and reached the magic 300kph – or 186mph – in a brisk 14.9 before topping out at 192.6mph after 20 seconds.

Putting this performance into perspective, of the Mercedes road cars only the 631 horsepower SLS AMG Black Series came the closest, posting a modest 161mph.

Along with the cars from Mercedes, privately owned cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Nissan and Tesla participated in the charity drag races. In total, 32 cars competed – a record number for the event.

By Press Association reporters