Ferrari F40 vs Porsche 959 video: Did Richard Hammond cheat?

Introduction

In this history-repeats series, I am sharing with you all the nine year old video in which something is suspicious. It is a Ferrari F40 vs Porsche 959 drag race featuring the famous Richard Hammond. In this video, the ardent Porsche fan Richard Hammond driving a Ferrari F40 looses to a Porsche 959 in the drag race. It is time for you to watch the video and judge for yourself. The original article about this race and specifications are taken from here.

The original Video

Porsche 959 supercar

The Porsche 959 was first born in 1983 as a race car. Interestingly, what you see here is a homologation special. These are one of those road cars that only exists so that a manufacturer can qualify to enter their race car in a particular series. As you know, many races mandate that manufacturers build street cars first to qualify for racing. Nonetheless, Porsche had committed to producing the 959 road car to get through the FIA regulations. It did make it to the rally: Porsche put it in the Paris-Dakar in 1986, which didn’t go well. But in 1987  it claimed first, second and sixth places.

The Legendary Ferrari F40

To celebrate Ferrari’s 40th birthday Ferrari came up with Ferrari F40. It is 200mph car built not to gain race homologation. It is built for the pure, unadulterated joy of creating the fastest, sharpest road car in the world. The design was razor-edged and stripped of everything but the absolute bare essentials. It is powered by a 2.9-litre twin turbo V8 and a steering wheel. You will see nothing much inside the car. Not even a door handle in the inside. Instead, you will get a rope to pull open the door.

Richard Hammond drives the Ferrari F40

In the drag race, you can see that Richard Hammond is driving the Ferrari F40. We all know that Richard Hammond is an ardent Porsche fan. He is more into Porsche than to Ferraris. We all expect the Ferrari F40 to win. But in this race, the Porsche 959 has won over the Ferrari F40. While it is hard to believe the result, there are possible explanations. Many won’t believe that the Ferrari F40 is not as quick as Porsche 959. If so, the other possibility is that Richard Hammond might have rigged the race and let the Porsche 959 win.

Conclusion

The race seems like a close call. Richard Hammond did his best to beat the Porsche 959. At least, it seems like that. Porsche fans would definitely agree that the race is not rigged. I concur with them as well. So does Richard Hammond. What would Ferrari Fans think about this video. What is your take on it?