It’s not every day you see a dormant runway on Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), no thanks to a global pandemic.

Our friends over at AutoBuzz.my, GC Mah (Adrian's ex-boss) managed to secure one of the runways for their ongoing Drag Series on YouTube.

When they gave us a call to feature our Perodua Ativa in one of the races, I jumped onto the request. After all, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to hoon around on KLIA’s runway tarmac.

In episode 4 of Drag Series, they pitched the Perodua Ativa against the Nissan Almera Turbo and 2019 Proton Iriz (not the recently launched 2022 Proton Iriz). 3 CVTs, 2 Turbos but there can only be 1 winner.

Here are some key specs for nerds:

To minimise driver error, AutoBuzz.my requested to not have any rev build-ups at launch. Just good ol’ fashioned pedal to the metal on go.

Off the line, the Iriz just charges ahead while the other two had to wait for the boost to build up before picking up speed. Throughout the 400-metre sprint, the Ativa and Almera were neck-to-neck while the Iriz had a comfortable lead from start to finish.

Towards the end of the race, the Almera edges out the Ativa due to the Nissan’s slippery shape (drag coefficient of 0.28).

Despite the Ativa having the best power-to-weight ratio among the trio, it still came in last. Again, this is due to its SUV aerodynamics as well as a small-capacity turbo engine which is not geared for performance. Ambient temperature also played a factor in less efficient power delivery.

This drag race proves that on paper stats do not paint the full picture in the real world. This is why we have our WapCar Ratings, aimed to bring you real-world results through a series of instrumented and objective tests. All to help you find your next perfect car.

Overall, we still very much love our Perodua Ativa and thanks to AutoBuzz.my, we now know where we stand at a traffic light showdown with an Almera and Iriz.