- The BMW M3 CS wins two U-drag races against the more powerful Hyundai Ioniq 5 N in this video.
- Even though EVs usually beat ICE cars off the line, the BMW launches more brutally than the Hyundai.
- They Hyundai Ioniq 5 N puts on a great show especially considering it costs half as much as the BMW.
It’s always fun to watch drag races between combustion and electric performance cars that seem evenly matched on paper. The turbocharged inline-six BMW M3 CS is less powerful than the electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, but it’s also lighter by almost 1,000 pounds. EVs’ instant power delivery usually helps them perform very well against combustion cars, but in this case, the Hyundai only saw the rear end of the BMW.
The Ioniq 5 N makes 601 horsepower, but if you press the N button, it temporarily bumps power to 641 hp while torque goes up to 568 pound-feet. This increased power lasts for around 10 seconds, but that should be enough to stay ahead in a drag race against a combustion car with 543 hp and 479 lb-ft of torque.
Edmunds does drag races differently. It has the cars perform a U-turn at the quarter-mile mark, introducing an element of handling into the mix. Braking power and cornering speed don’t matter in a typical straight-line drag race. This U-Drag format with the 180-degree turn can certainly spice things up because a car can be really quick in a straight line but not so good in the corners, where its opponent can catch up.
However, in the case of the M3 CS versus the Ioniq 5 N, the combustion car is quicker in a straight line and around the corner, where it increases the lead it had built on the first straight part. Powering out of the corner, though, the Hyundai actually reels the BMW back slightly thanks to its ability to put its power down instantly, whereas the M3 has to change gears, losing some of its advantage.
It’s worth noting that during the second run, after they change drivers, the Ioniq 5 N sounds like it has the fake engine noise enabled, which also enables fake gear shifting that does affect its outright pace slightly. It also doesn’t seem like the BMW is pulling away significantly through any of the runs, which you would think it does, being a lighter car with comparable power and multiple gear ratios to make the most of that power even at higher speeds.
Edmunds measured the M3’s best 0 to 60 mph time at just 3.1 seconds, while the Ioniq 5 couldn’t get lower than a 3.3-second sprint time. That’s precisely how quick Hyundai says it should be, while the BMW was one-tenth quicker than the manufacturer claims. There really wasn’t much in it through the quarter mile, where the M3’s best time was 11 seconds flat, and the Ioniq 5 N needed two-tenths more.
This race shows that the M3 CS is quicker, but it’s also nearly twice the price of an Ioniq 5 N. This shows just how impressive a performance car the Hyundai really is since it can keep up with the quickest version of the world’s greatest sports sedan, and it doesn’t look out of place at all in its company. It would have been a quicker race if they used a regular M3 Competition, not the more extreme CS, which has less power and doesn’t launch quite as brutally.
