For the last 76 years, Grand Prix cars have been trying to beat aeroplanes in acceleration tests. The first was an Alfa Romeo 8C-2300 Monza driven by Tazio Nuvolari, who was narrowly beaten by a Caproni 100 Biplane at Rome’s Littorio Airport on December 8, 1931. But the plane was allowed to fly rather than taxi fast, because there was no way a biplane of the period, which looked vaguely like a Tiger Moth, could have beaten Il Mantovano Volante in a ground acceleration confrontation.
To some extent, the coming of the jet age evened things out. Fast forward to 1981 and we find the legendary Gilles Villeneuve, who beat an F-104 fighter in his Ferrari 126 GK in their ground acceleration challenge at Istrana, Italy, on November 22, 1981. Michael Schumacher was not so lucky at Baccarini di Grossetto airport on December 11, 2003. He beat a Eurofighter in the mythical Ferrari F2003-GA over 600 meters, but the sleek, powerful aircraft roared past the Formula One World Championship–winning car at 900 meters and was well ahead at the 1,200-meter finish line.
It was a near run thing at the Volkel military airbase in Holland in April, when Christian Albers’s 2007 F1 contender Spyker-Ferrari led an F-16 fighter for 300 meters. They were neck and neck for a while, until the aircraft got its nose slightly in front to win the 280-mph sprint by no more than 10 meters.
By Robert Newman
