Caballus
Well-Known Member
Thread is almost dead, but as the world Bench Racing Champion (self-declared), I can't resistThe second I saw the post about the GT350R's time I was like...no. No fucking way it was even close to that of the ZLE.
Just for shits I scrolled through both videos to pretty much the same point on the track. I set my phone in front of my laptop monitor and hit play to watch both at the same time. The ZLE is gone in short order and keeps pulling away. Try it.
I started the GT350R video at the 1:08 mark and the ZLE video at the :21 mark. Be quick and click start on both of these at the same time as they are in very near the same location on the track. After only about 4 minutes, the ZLE is roughly 10 seconds ahead of the GT350R.
Just looking at benchmarks, when the GT350 hits the end of its run the ZLE is roughly 16 seconds ahead of it. ZLE hit 172mph while the GT350R did 155mph (rounding up too).
Hard to argue that the ZLE is not faster on the track than the GT350, so won't.
However, when it comes to comparing the two videos (ultimate bench racing), a couple things should be considered:
1. Driver skill. The GT350 driver is well known to be one of the best hobby drivers on the ring, but he is no where near as good as the ZLE driver. Chevy was going for an official time. The driver is an official "test pilot." GM is not going to let just anyone behind the wheel when they are recording a time to be used for marketing purposes. Visual clue: Josh's inputs are very smooth, so smooth that it's obvious that the car is not at the limit. The ZLE driver is clearly at the limit. Driver skill matters:
2. Track Conditions. The GT350 time is from a Touristenfahrten day, which means there's traffic. When driving, there's no way to tell what you may encounter until you encounter it.
3. Track(s). The ZLE driver hit top speed (172) on the section between Döttinger Höhe and Tiergarten. That's the fastest section of the track AND the section that is cut out from the Bridge to Gantry round (most of it, anyway). So, there is no way to tell how fast the GT350 would have been on that section or what including that section would have done to the overall time. That's not to say that the ZLE is not faster. The second fastest section is between Flugplatz and Schweden-kreuz. The GT350 hit 257 KPH (~159mph); the ZLE hit 167mph. BUT, was that car or driver skill. Considering that the GT350 driver is wearing shorts, he has may have a weight advantage, but he also wins the cool factor .
As for the GT500, would be great to see a professional driver push it to it's limit on the Ring. Would be interesting to see whether it benchmarks best against the 911 or the M5...
Ok, back to the bench.
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