What lap time matters: Journalist, 3rd party Pro, or Factory?

Ah an C6G inspired thread lul

Magazines that put out numbers that support that the Camaro is the best car are the only ones you can trust.

Without 3rd party testing we wouldn't have accurate data. These tests give us a good estimate of how well these cars perform. Otherwise we'd have results that would be all over the place. And I personally have seen enough liars and BS-artists to know that some people would actually make up results. These tests keeps us honest. Can someone in a Mustang somewhere at a track do better than what an article did? Sure. But it still gives us a benchmark.

And sure, go out and do your own thing. But at least with testing you can compare how these cars perform without some Joe-Schmoe running his mouth about his cousin's GF's brother who ran 10s in a bone stock Mustang, lol!! It keeps people honest.

If I am going to discuss things like lap times with people, I prefer 3rd party drivers.

I care a little about lap times. I think they provide an indicator/approximation of the performance I can expect.

But I have learned that just because a car has some favorable reviews doesn't mean that I will prefer it. Sometimes it's the performance/value balance where the reviewer doesn't seem to car about how much a car costs. Sometimes it's interior quality - reviewers seem to think interiors are really important and it just isn't that important to me. Even things like shifter feel. I've found that sometimes my preferences just don't align with other people's.

Picking a car is a very personal decision made of a lot of different factors. It's hard to separate them all out. But the lap times are more of an approximation than anything else. There's a huge difference between different drivers, different days, and the condition of the car's consumables even will make a big difference. So I take lap times with a big grain of salt.

TomcatDriver said:

This. Why do you care about how well (or poorly) someone else can drive your car? Maybe if a magazine did some tests using middle-aged drivers who are not as good as they think they are.

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That's option 1 :lol:

1mic said:

Laptimes don’t really matter because it’s what YOU as the driver can do.

New Ford GT recently broke the VIR record, driven by Billy Johnson, 2:38.62 and he had a little left in the run but saved the tires for the C&D lightning lap (driven by a different driver).
Point is after all the bitching about performance numbers lap times, etc people still complain about something. V6, ford “cheating” at lemans, car weighing 300lbs more than ford stated. Lol, people bitching and crying about a car they will never get.

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Link?

Austinj427 said:

To be honest though, for most people it all boils down to....

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Mine's longer. But might be a bit thinner.......... :shrug:

Anything but Chevytrend.

Chameleon said:

Anything but Chevytrend.

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They did pick the GT350R over the ZL1 and made it go faster around LS than a Japanese Supercar...

Nice to have a baseline - BUT It’s all about the driver

No mention of 3rd party 'pro' Chris Harris?

The answer is simple:

Whichever driver type discredits the car you don't like and strokes your ego on the one you do. It doesn't even have to be consistent in the same day!

1320' said:

The answer is simple:

Whichever driver type discredits the car you don't like and strokes your ego on the one you do. It doesn't even have to be consistent in the same day!

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:cheers:

To add to that:

It looks like GM beat the Ford GT's (pro in a T-shirt) time at VIR in a pre-production ZR-1 with racing seats, harness bar, harness, etc... with their in-house pro-"engineer" in a racing suit.

The suit has to be worth 0.5 seconds.

First post here, might as well chime in...

On the staircase up to my man-loft, are several old wooden fruit cases. They hold my collection of Road & Track, back to 1970. Up until a few years ago, when they fired the bulk of the staff and moved from Newport Beach to Michigan. Me and my circle of SoCal car guys considered R&T the finest sports & performance car magazine on the planet. Motor Trend, meh. Car & Driver; rust belt posers. The real enthusiasts were right there on Monrovia Avenue in Newport.

The "real" (as in pre-Michigan) writers could get to the essence of a car quickly, accurately, and soulfully. They were also hands-on car guys (and at least a couple genuine car gals too) Most of them owned vintage sports cars & bikes. Most of them raced as well. They didn't race Neons, like the Car & Driver crowd. They raced Porsches, GT350's, Alfa's, Triumph's etc.
As such, their reviews were the gold standard for decades. R&T also had monthly pro reports, taking you into a different level of racing. Guys like Jeff Zwart...

All this to say; A real, skilled, savvy & intelligent writer who knows what a car should feel like at its limit, should be a very good source of info. Obviously, a manufacturer's rep is going to report how great their new car is. And a pro or semi-pro racer is unlikely to communicate exactly how that car will perform on a daily basis.

I can tell you before we wind our way out of the forest I live in: whether a car pushes, if the sightlines are workable, how comfortable I'll be on track, and a ton of other parameters.

Ok, too much for the first time... Drive on...

Zelek said:

Actually, none of it matters because 95% of buyers just drive these in regular traffic. The other 5% are the track enthusiasts.

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True.

Except I think track enthusiasts (road racing) are way less than 5%

Eritas said:

And 0-60 & 1/4 mile times matter? ...

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Of course.

The 0-60 function is much more accessible to your daily driver, and 1/4 mile trips can cost as little as $25 and a few hours at the strip.

Road racing is none of those things.

16 GT MM/Auto said:

True.

Except I think track enthusiasts (road racing) are way less than 5%

Of course.

The 0-60 function is much more accessible to your daily driver, and 1/4 mile trips can cost as little as $25 and a few hours at the strip.

Road racing is none of those things.

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Exactly. And by and large, folks who actually race, run race cars, not their daily driver on the track.
Though, it can be fun once in a while... Me in my E550!