This post has received too much negative feedback and is hidden. "Beneath the slightly soft-edged responses is a chassis of real balance and a subtle, nuanced delivery," Jethro notes after stepping out of the Kia. E81 / E82 / E87 / E88Model Year: 2004 - 2011. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a paved road racing track used for both auto racing and motorcycle racing, originally constructed in 1957 near Monterey, California, USA. He'd spent too much time fighting the car. We've run hundreds of hot cars on VIR's Grand Course. We still pinch ourselves that the fine folks at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca allow us full run of one of the planet's greatest racetracks, nestled in one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the world. Well, we're glad you asked. I only found out because of someone on Mclaren Life! Most of the speed differential is down to the McLaren's superior drive out of the 90-degree left of Turn 11; although the 720S is 500 pounds lighter than the ZR1, the power-to-weight ratio of both cars is almost identical. And 500 hp is the new middle ground, with the 600-hp BMW M5 and 400-hp Audi TT RS bracketing a group that includes the 460-hp Mustang GT with Ford's Performance Pack 2, plus Aston Martin's all-new 503-hp Vantage and the 505-hp Alfa Romeo Stelvio Q4 Quadrifoglio. E81 / E82 / E87 / E88Model Year: 2004 - 2011. That doesnt sit well with us! Conditions were described as "ideal" and the car used road-legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2R tyres. Route 198 always throws us some unexpected moments. Isn't that cheating, the more conspiratorial among you might be asking? Taken as a whole, the comprehensive list of Lightning Lap times tells a saga of long-running rivalries, continuous technological progress, and an evolving notion of what constitutes a performance vehicle (were talking about you, Porsche Cayenne, the SUV lap-time champ). ), but it came back strong (in spite of the final ranking) in a three-way comparison during its sophomore year re-try. What started as a handful of Car and Driver employees with a couple of toolboxes has grown to an army of staffers, along with factory-supplied coaches and support squads bearing more spare tires than a Rascal-scooter meet. Unfortunately, for people like myself who grew up pouring over the stats on the back of their baseball cards, Motor Trends testing has one major shortcoming compared to Car and Driver, and thats recordkeeping. Reply 624 Dirtdickler 12y ago The culprit turns out to be the ultra-stiff sport setting for the shocks: It's calibrated purely for track work, and using it on bumpy Route 198 means the Porsche's front wheels can be in the air at a critical braking point, causing extreme ABS intervention. But unlike the heat-loving R-compound tires on the GT2 RS, the new Carrera S wears street tires, and preheating them was a bad ideathe new 992 laid down a slower lap than the 991.2 Carrera S from two years ago: 1:36.40 for the old, 1:36.72 for the neu. The current racetrack is 2.238 miles in length (3.602 kilometers), has eleven turns, including the famous "Corkscrew" at Turns 8 and 8A, and a 300 foot (91 m) elevation change. Randy beams as he steps out of the understated BMW M5. 1. The clock deconstructs the lap, by fractions of a second. "Wow! But when the lineup includes four of the most powerful supercars sold in America, lap times add spice to the competition. The addition of Randy Pobst as an in-house hot shoe was a stroke of genius on MTs part 13-years ago! There's fierce argument over whether the Porsche was better than the McLaren and whether the Aston and Honda really deserved to be ranked as highly as some thought. The evolution of performance can be tracked right here. A silent crowd clusters around the giant Racepak monitor in the pit garage. As with all ND models, the 2019 still has too much roll oversteer. We surmised the Brit would slaughter the Porsche. When we started .css-xtkis1{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#1C5f8B;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;font-weight:bold;}.css-xtkis1:hover{color:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Lightning Lap 17 years ago, a 2006 Ford GT claimed the fast time with a 3:00.7. The engine is staggeringly good, a 600-hp iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove. It's a difficult car to go fast in," he says. The car is stock production and the video plus GPS are below. Each time MT heads north to the legendary 2.2-mile circuit, the only variable is the weather, and you know what they say about rain in California. Simultaneously, the app sends the data, via cell connection, to a server in Phoenix, where the information is rendered into graphics and overlaid onto a swipeable and rotatable track map. "It's fascinating to drive the Vantage on U.S. roads after Jonny Lieberman and I tried it in Scotland," Jethro Bovingdon says. This manifests as an equipment arms race. I only timed one session and it's ******* congested out there but best was 1:59. In broad strokes, a mildly sporty car should lap the 2.2-mile track in just under 2 minutes. Also Laguna Seca is a tight small course. F40Model Year: 2019 + Previous Generations; F20 / F21Model Year: 2012 - 2018. Laguna Seca is a power circuit, and with more ponies under the hood, the 2019 MX-5 is 2.2 seconds faster than the Miata Randy lapped in BDC 2016. And the Corvette Z06 this year went some 22.5 seconds quicker (!) "Seven hundred horsepower is the new 500 horsepower," Chris Walton muses as he eyes this 2,786-horsepower quartet. One last time, out Randy went. Distance. Jethro Bovingdon.. Thanks to the super-sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires that come with the Performance Pack 2, the Mustang GT has a ton of mechanical grip. The big 'Vette is a tail-happy handful. We wanted to see Tadge calling out Randy and his employer in a Ralph Gilles-esque fit with demands for a redo (like the C7 Z06 had at Willow Springs), but all we got were crickets and a seriously good but not great lap time. Lightning Lap 2023: Hottest Cars, Toughest Track, Most Fuel-Efficient Gas Cars (That Aren't Hybrid), Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. CorvetteBlogger.com covers all generations of the Chevrolet Corvette including C8 news, spy photos, Corvette videos, auctions, prices, and Corvette Racing. Quote>"Watch a Tesla Model S Plaid prototype lap Laguna Seca in 1:30.3 seconds! Even though both his race cars were not pushing all out (particularly the 919, as it still has the rest of the World Endurance Championship to pursue), Walliser calmly responded that the 919 could knock off 15 seconds from the lap times of the 911 RSR racer. Our 4.2-mile test section, closed to traffic by the California Highway Patrol, allows judges to evaluate the contenders on a real-world road, albeit in closed-course safety. Send your emails to Ford Motor Company. Only six cars and one SUV will participate. Randy loves the mighty engine and the hand-of-God stability through fast corners from the ZTK package's high wing. He loves the little turbo motor's desire to rev and the consistency of the chassis, though for track work he wants a little lift-off oversteer to get the car into corners quicker. Mastering all the usages of 'automobile racing' from sentence examples published by news publications. Agreed. In 2018, Randy and the Porsche GT2 RS set the production car lap record around Laguna Seca: a blisteringly quick 1:28.30, beating a Porsche 918 Spyder by over a half-second. Route 198 taught us that brakes aren't an issue for the Senna, but Randy had complained about oversteer when exiting corners. Topic: Motor Trend's Laguna Seca Top Ten . Less than an hour before, our resident pro driver, Randy Pobst, had flung the mighty McLaren 720S around WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 1 minute, 29.78 secondsthe fastest lap ever recorded in the history of our Best Driver's Car competition. Bragging rights. The lap times are supported by hard data and represent showroom stock cars -- no cheater tires or modifications allowed. Browse through 2017 IMSA Laguna Seca results, statistics, rankings and championship standings. When was the last update? Jonny had been saying for months that the Lamborghini Huracan Performante was a supercar to rival Ferrari's 488last year's BDC winnerand the McLaren 720S. Fast cars take around 1 minute 40 seconds. Now, we would like to travel out west, where Motor Trend has been lapping performance cars at Laguna Seca as a part of their annual Best Drivers Car (BDC) competition, preceding Americas Best Handling Car, and for regular comparison tests, with the same professional driver behind the wheel, since 2008. Randy's innate talent is an ability to get the best out of a car from the get-go, often extracting its quickest time on his first flying lap. It's a driver's er, SUV. This is price vs Laguna Seca performance plot created by @ilias. RECENT ISSUES View All April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 More2018 Best Driver's CarContenders and Winner. Vittel, which we will assume is an alias, says the S Plaid was on a custom set of Michelin Sport Cup 2 tires that will be released along with the vehicle when it goes on sale in late 2021. Unofficially, the fastest lap ever recorded was a 1-minute 5.88-second lap achieved by Sebastien Bourdais back in March 2007 during a Champ Car training session. Let me reword that. 2. The 911 explodes onto the front straight and dashes for the finish line. The problem is the lack of rear-end grip. Let's just say the Supra's power numbers are comically underrated. "I have to just roll that power in," he grumbles. This year's entrants are the following: 2015 VW Golf GTI - 1:50.11 2015 BMW M4 - 1:39.69 2014 Porsche 911 Turbo S - 1:35.62 2015 Alfa Romeo 4C (Launch Edition) - 1:43.78 2015 Subaru WRX STI (Launch Edition) - 1:47.16 2014 Chevy Camaro Z/28 - 1:37.82 2014 Ford Fiesta ST - 1:51.25 2015 BMW i8 - 1:44.29 2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe R - 1:42.01 Randy loved the Aston Martin Vantage on Route 198, ranking it in his top three. That doesn't solve the traction problem, but it tames the twitch a little, delivering a lap time identical to the Mustang's. Winner: Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport. "The ZR1 needs to come with warning labels," Ed Loh mutters. Race 1: Streets of St. Petersburg. A thigh-high wedge of weapons-grade machismo, the Huracan Performante turns heads wherever it's parked. "They have more horsepower," he shrugs. F40Model Year: 2019 + Previous Generations; F20 / F21Model Year: 2012 - 2018. MT gave more BDC track time to Lamborghini, McLaren, and Porsche that year, while GM just shrugged it off. (To watch Randy's hot laps, go to MotorTrendOnDemand.com.). His only grumble: a lack of initial bite from the brakes. "Incredibly capable and confident and easy to drive fast," Scott Evans gushes. PlayStation Saturn Super NES Genesis Game Boy Game Gear Neo-Geo 300 GAMING MONTHLY, 5% pP Motortrend Figure-8 is a racing venue in United States with 1276 lap times. Click a car and you'll see our comments, the hot-shoe's take, and, when available, in-car video of the lap. Randy Pobst's time of 1:33.70. When you read the full write-up, it is apparent that the events on-site GM techs felt the same way, but they arent without fault in this whole enterprise, either! Good example of "diminishing returns" law, which we see almost in any kind of product or service - the most specialist, most well made or very best performing product will sometimes cost multiples more than nearest rival, even if value difference is negligable. Just wait till the C8 ZO6 comes out, I think this list will change. Way better than I had ever hoped it would be.". Also, horsepower doesnt hurt. GT500 Scores 'Motor Trend' Best Driver's Car' Best Lap Time By Cameron Aubernon - December 30, 2020 With Randy Pobst behind the wheel, Shelby GT500 CFTP dominates Laguna Seca to claim the best-lap crown from the 2018 Camaro ZL1! We can attribute the GS flip-flop with the C6Z to MTs use of a 12 model with grippier tires vs. C&Ds fielding of an 11 Z, but, other than Randy, we still have no explanation for the abyss that the C6 ZR1 was able to bridge between the two publications. VIR Aug 21, 2020 to Aug 22, 2020 . 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