Grudge matches are settled on the drag strip between car-proud gents all the time and usually it wouldn’t make for great news, but this one is a little different.

A no-nonsense, classic American muscle car finished in full chrome up against the latest thoroughbred Italian supercar in a straight up quarter mile race. That doesn’t exactly happen every day, but what could make this furious fixture even more tense? A $400,000 personal wager, that’s what.

The story is that a pair of cashed-up mates over in the States got into a good ole ‘my car’s quicker than yours’ debate which ultimately led to the dragstrip. Dan Bilzerian, owner of the fully pimped and highly modified 1965 427 Shelby Cobra, placed a bet that his American muscle car can beat his friend Tom Goldstein’s brand spankers 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia in a quarter mile race. It was a big call, Ferrari don’t exactly make slow cars and the 458 came with some handy tech like a launch control system and lightning fast transmission.

Earlier this month, these two big kids took their respective rides down to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway racetrack and put their money where their mouth is.

Check out the video below to see how it went down. It’s intense. (more…)