Watch the 2023 Nissan Z Drag Race the Supra and Mustang Mach 1

With the official debut of the all-new Nissan Z, the enthusiast community has welcomed a new challenger to the attainable sports car segment. To christen the new car, the folks over at Hagerty wanted to see just how the new Z stacks up to some of its modern competition. Thankfully for all of us, that means we have a bit of drag racing to watch.

In order to test where the new Z falls into the sports car hierarchy, Hagerty’s Jason Cammisa invited a few of the car’s segment competitors down to a runway. These opponents include the new Mustang Mach 1 and the Toyota GR Supra, with all three cars featuring their respective automatic gearboxes. This is likely due to the fact that the Supra is still not available with a manual gearbox for the time being. That said, the decision to go with only slushboxes helped to keep the races as close as possible. The Mustang’s 480 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque make it the most powerful ride of the bunch, though at 3850 lbs it's also the heaviest. The Nissan is about 260 lbs heavier than the Toyota, tipping in at 3610 lbs, but that twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter engine and its 400 hp and 350 lb-ft of torque are enough to take the edge in that category. That said, we know Toyota’s output ratings of 382 hp and 368 lb-ft of torque are a bit conservative.

With the help of some video editing magic, we get to watch as the three coupes fire down the runway in style. The Toyota appears to get a little jump over the V-8 muscle car, but that doesn’t stay the case for long. In fact, the two rivals managed to both run an identical 3.8 seconds to 60 mph, before completing the 1/4 mile in 12.1 seconds. The Mustang did trap at a slightly higher speed of 120 mph, compared to just 117 for the Supra. The Nissan fell behind both competitors, posting runs of 4.0 seconds to 60 mph and a 1/4 mile pass of 12.3 at 116 mph. The Z was traction limited from the start of the race, which Cammisa notes might be a result of the car’s standard Bridgestone rubber. The other two vehicles come equipped with Michelin rubber.