Petrol v Diesel! Which performance SUV is faster at the drag strip?

When the kids are late for Saturday morning sport, you need a performance SUV that can carry the clan and all associated gear, fast.

But which is faster? The diesel-sipping Audi SQ5 TDI, or the petrol-powered Jaguar F-Pace P400 R-Dynamic SE?

The Jaguar swings in at $98,654 (before on-roads) which buys you a 294kW/550Nm 3.0-litre turbocharged inline-six, further bolstered by an electric supercharger.

Audi’s SQ5 arrives slightly-dearer at $104,900, before on-roads, with its turbo-diesel 3.0-litre V6 supplemented by a 48-volt mild hybrid system, yielding a slightly more modest 251kW. The headline figure, however, is its torque output which develops a monstrous 700Nm at its peak.

In typically cold and damp Melbourne conditions, that could well prove the difference.

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We lined up our two burly bruisers for a multi-faceted drag strip challenge. First up was a race mode launch control start, followed by a conventional comfort mode street start, and finishing with a 50km/h roll race.

The race mode start saw the Jaguar at an immediate disadvantage with no launch control function present. While Alex in the Audi had the electronic wizardry to aid his take-off, Scott in the Jaguar would be going old-school by leaning on the brake while attempting to pre-load the engine with boost.

Decades of quattro know-how saw the diesel SQ5 lunge away from the line, quickly establishing a multi-car gap that the British big cat simply couldn’t recover from.

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Flicking both cars back into their default comfort modes for a street start, we hoped, would bring the Jaguar back into contention. With no launch control advantage for the Audi to lean on, the simple street start is handy in unveiling any shortcomings hiding amongst the cars’ complex powertrain calibration systems. No fancy sport modes, just mash the accelerator on ‘GO’ and see which car gets to the finish line first.

Again, the Audi’s insurmountable torque advantage and quattro system gave it an immediate lead. However the Jaguar quickly hit its stride and began recovering lost ground. Unfortunately, the F-Pace ran out of road and passed the flags just half a car-length behind the SQ5.

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With two wins under its belt thus far for the SQ5, the Jaguar rested its hopes on the final roll race. The process is simple: cars in sport, gearboxes in automatic, and flatten the throttle as you pass the flags at a steady 50km/h.

The Jaguar proved far quicker on its feet, jumping out in front of the less-decisive Audi and maintaining the lead all the way through the finish.

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While the petrol-powered F-Pace outmuscled the diesel-drinking SQ5 in the roll race, the Audi remained far quicker from a dig – recording a best 0-100km/h time of 5.19-seconds, compared to the Jaguar’s best effort of 6.0-seconds flat.

The slower-starting Jaguar regains some pace once on the move however, and ultimately trailed the SQ5 across the quarter mile just half a second behind; with the Audi besting a 13.51-second pass over 400m at 164.35km/h, versus the Jaguar’s fastest time of 14.08-seconds at 164.62km/h.

That’s a close win to Audi’s torque monster SQ5 TDI. But is that enough to steal you away from Jaguar’s petrol-powered silky-six? Which of these two would you take home? Watch all the action above, and let us know in the comments below!