A Tight Race with a Plane

"QUANTUM SHOT" #166

Formula One car "Spyker F8-VII" takes on F-16 fighter jet -
Guess who wins?

More than ten thousand spectators gathered at the Royal Netherlands Air Force base in Volkels, Holland, to witness an astonishing "Full Throttle" racing event:

A Spyker F8-VII race car, powered by a Ferrari engine, and "piloted" by Formula One driver Christijan Albers went head-to-head against Air Force pilot Ralph "Sheik" Staal's F-16 fighter jet.

(images credit: Autojunk.nl and Motorsport-Total)

The Spyker F8-VII was faster than the F-16 over the first 300 metres. However at the closing meters of 1 kilometer race, the plane just proved to have more acceleration. They finished with only two car lengths difference.

"It was a tight race..." said Albers. 450 km/h in 15.5 seconds. If James Bond needed to catch that F-16, chasing it from his car, he would need the help of some special effects. No car can do it yet, but the race is getting tighter.

Here is a picture of another race - this time with a big rig:

Now up the stakes:

Lamborghini Reventon vs. the fighter jet (a Tornado F22) at the Ghedi airport in Italy. The Lamborghini Reventon almost won the race!

Here is the video of this event:

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The spectacular sight of a jet fighter accelerating on a highway brings me to another topic:

The Low-Flying Aircraft

The following are photos of extremely low-flying planes, taken mostly at air shows. Starting with the Chinese "Su-30 Zhang Jia Jie":