In the last few years, the development of the consumer drone has accelerated at a staggering rate. These little quad-copters are quick and powerful flying machines. As mankind has done since the dawn of time, when we have something that is fast, we race it against something else that is fast. Today we have the Inspire 2 drone versus an Audi R8 V-10.
The Inspire 2 in stock trim is a seven and a half pound, rugged drone designed for film making. It has a magnesium aluminum composite body and lightweight carbon fiber arms. It has a top speed of 58 miles per hour. It retails for around $6,100.00 But this particular Inspire 2 has an extra turbine mounted underneath where a camera would normally be, so it should go much faster than 58 MPH
The Audi R8 V-10 is a 3,500-pound supercar designed to go fast and look good doing it. It has an aluminum and carbon fiber chassis and body. It's V-10 engine puts out 540 horsepower and has a top speed of 198 MPH. It'll set you back $163,000.00 in its most basic of trims.
The Inspire 2 and R8 go head to head in a 100-meter dash in this video from the China-based vlog channel of Touch Sky.
That was not exactly what I was expecting.
Maybe how the video was shot and edited didn't give us a true sense of the speed going on here. Over 100 meters, the R8 certainly isn't going to hit its top speed, but it sure seems like it should have been going a lot faster. If you've even had the pleasure of watching (and hearing) an R8 rocket off from a stand still, you'll probably agree that this doesn't seem quite right.
The drag race itself only takes about four seconds to complete, but the video shows the race from several angles, so it seems to take longer than it really is. The shot that is from high and behind gives you a pretty good indication that that R8 is not at full-throttle.
The proof comes from the shot of the R8's digital RMP gauge and speedometer. The R8 can do 0 to 60 MPH in about three and half seconds. In the two seconds of footage shown of the gauge, the R8 goes from 8 KPH to 45 KPH, which translates to 4 to 27 MPH.
I call shenanigans on this.
Shenanigans.
There are plenty of drones out there that can give a supercar a run for its money. This drone, with the extra turbine, should have no problem at least matching the R8 over 100 meters. I don't know what the motivation is for the sandbagging. Money? Pride? Either way, shenanigans.
For comparison, watch this drone, with a reported top speed of 115 MPH race a Nissan GT-R. While it's not a drag race, it should give you a better idea of what a drone vs. supercar race should look like when both are going as fast as possible.
Just recently, a very fast drone raced a Formula E car. The drone smoked the Formula E car, but that was expected. That particular drone hits its top speed of 110 mph in two seconds. That is the kind of power a drone needs to beat a very fast car. The little Inspire 2 drone, even with its extra turbine isn't packing that kind of punch.
The drone versus the R8 is, on the surface, a neat little video. In reality, it appears to be a sham. And that's a shame.