Thought these were quite interesting, and figured I'd share thinking you guys would be interested as well. ^_^
Yeah, it's an August 07 issue, a few months old, but anyway:
It's about "rating the best street cars on the track". In this case, the 4.2-mile Virginia International Speedway (VIR). This is their 2nd go-around at this, with the first documented here: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11755/the-lightning-lap-2006.html
More accurately, they wanted road-going and legal sporty cars "to benchmark their overall performance—not just how they accelerated, braked, gripped, or handled, but how they combined these tasks. To think of it another way, our Lightning Lap test showcases a car’s ability to quickly and safely traverse a challenging section of pavement without running the risk of putting a car through someone’s front yard."
A few interesting takeaways. Let's start:
The Vettes & The 911's:
The winner, and the only car in both the 06 and 07 tests to do a lap in under 3:00 was the 2007 Z06. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/13185/2007-chevrolet-corvette-z06.html
The interesting part is, last year's Z06 did it in 3:01.1 which is almost 3 seconds longer than the 2007 attempt. Why? Most likely due to the revised rear shocks which made the revised (2007 I believe) considerably easier to drive/handle at the limit. This shows how important it is for engineering to be thorough on a car, especially a sporty road car that is likely to encounter all sorts of conditions in its lifetime.
As awesome as the revised Z06's performance is, they said "In truth, the Z06 wasn’t as satisfying to drive as the 911 GT3". But as they also say, hard to argue with the performance, especially given that the Porsche had special semi-slick racing Michelins (stock).
The GT3 laptiime: 3:01.8. They mention it is faster than the Z06 is a bunch of the sectors on the track, but it suffered from severe lift-throttle oversteer in the middle of turns. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/13186/2007-porsche-911-gt3.html
The standard Vette achieved 3.03.6. That's awesome, especially given that it's running on runflats, and just think of what the 08 car can do, given its larger, more powerful engine, and improved steering and shifter feel...oh and that handily beat the 997 Turbo's time of 3:05.8. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/13192/2007-porsche-911-turbo.html
The Bimmers, The RS4, and a couple more:
"The 335i does everything remarkably well, which is why many of us at Car and Driver think it’s the best all-around car in the world." Damn, lol. ;-)
One thing that made me scratch my head is, how did they weigh their 335i coupe at ONLY 3366 lbs? They should be 3571 base. I guess they're simply going by what the scale said at the racetrack? Whatever, what they drove was a production, roadgoing, unmodded car so it's a moot point (maybe a typo on their part).
335i laptime: 3:10.5
RS4 laptime: 3.11.2
Whoa. The 335i beats the mighty RS4, a car that is heralded as easily the best driver's car to come out of Audi's shop in decades (until the advent of the R8 that is). Not only that, although weighed down by a fat 3900+ lbs, it has a 420hp 8250rpm V8 with a proper manual tranny and great brakes. So wtf happened? They touch upon it: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/13184/2007-audi-rs-4.html
Also, take a look at the numbers in each sector here: http://www.caranddriver.com/assets/download/lightninglap_results.pdf comparing the 2 cars (and of course all the others to your liking :))
Look by how much the it's-no-M-car-has-soft-suspension-slow-responses-and-no-LSD 335i beats the RS4 in most of the measurements across the various sectors. Uh, what was that again about it not being an //M car? Run-flats? No LSD? Etc etc? Yeah....
Speaking of, since folks out there want to compare the RS4 v M5, how about its M6 sister, a car weighing in at close to the same as the RS4? 3:10.0 was its best lap (in the previous event of 2006 though, if it matters). Whoa, only half a second faster than the 335i? Dang. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11755/the-lightning-lap-2006-ll3-60000-120000-page6.html
As for the Cayman S, a car many in the industry rank way up there with the very best handling cars regardless of class or price, it got 3:09.5, or exactly 1 second faster than the 335i on the 4.2 mile stretch of racetrack. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11755/the-lightning-lap-2006-ll2-30000-60000-page5.html
I wonder what woulda happened if they equipped the amazing Michelin PS2 tires (OEM on the CaymanS) on the 335i instead of it's runflat crappy oem's... ;-)
Better yet, I wonder if you did that on a Procede/JB2/Dinan/Attache-powered 335i...and before u bring forth the stock-vs-modded argument...ask yourself, can any of the other cars featured be modded to gain anything worthwhile for $2000 or less? Well, other than the Corvettes...not really. ;-)
A testament to the overall design of the E9x platform, particularly when you account for its comfort and practicality (not to mention pricing). Can't wait to see what the new M3 will do. Although it's pretty obvious that dominance will occur. Make that, re-occur.
All hail the Corvettes though. Sure, they're crude (alleviated some by the steering/shifter tweaks for 08), but DANG are they performers for the price. Nothing comes close in that regard.
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