Car and Driver: Lightning Lap 2013 (BRZ competes! LFA TOO!)

[Chewie4299]

http://www.caranddriver.com/features...t-laps-feature

I hope this isn't a repost but since I haven't seen any reference to it on the homepage my guess is it isn't. This is an excellent read with great info on many great cars complete with pics and videos and awesome stats. Below is a few quotes from the article but click the link above for the full story.



LINK TO BRZ LAP @ VIR VIDEO

Lightning Lap 2013: Hot Cars, Hot Track, Hot Laps

For the seventh time, we put the year's hottest performance cars to the ultimate test.


-From the February 2013 Issue of Car and Driver

The asphalt amoeba down at the *bottom of Old Dominion, known as Virginia International Raceway (VIR), differs from the famed Nürburgring in Germany in several important respects. First, VIR is not bankrupt. Second, at 4.1 miles long, the configuration of VIR that we use for our annual Lightning Lap speed-a-palooza is considerably shorter than the Nordschleife, which is 12.9 miles around and has something like 18 trillion turns. Also, at the 'Ring you can't get Mountain Dew from a vending machine. No wonder business is bad.

Otherwise, VIR is North America's best facsimile of the famously formidable German speedway, which is why we come here to risk life, livelihoods, reputations, and other things breakable and precious to set benchmark lap times for the slickest new sheetmetal we can lay our greasy digits on. In this, our seventh Lightning Lap, we have gathered 20 vehicles ranging in price from a $26,600 Fiat 500 Abarth to a $379,575 Lexus LFA—indeed, the third LFA ever built and the first to reach North America. That means our Lightning Lap master database now encompasses 136 vehicles with not a sour apple in the bushel.

The event is simple in that finishing order is ranked purely on the best lap time for each vehicle over three days of testing. However, as in years past, the cars are grouped into classes based on price, which makes economic comparisons easier.

This year, while we had no entrants in LLT (trucks and SUVs) or LLU (unclassified), we added another special class. The source of its name, LLOINK, becomes groaningly obvious when you see the two contenders: the new Dodge Charger Pursuit and the new Chevrolet Caprice Police Patrol Vehicle (PPV). Attention, all esteemed law-enforcement professionals: We, the rest of the staff, were not allowed to vote on the class name, which is at least *better than LL THE PO-PO TOOK ALL MY WEED AND SMOKED IT, which was one suggested alternative.

The Rules

Track-testing is serious business, so of course there were rules. As usual, the cars were all in unmodified street condition, just as your local Subaru or Ferrari dealership might deliver them. Where applicable, the cars were fitted with the highest performance options available to the buyer (or vomit-proof upholstery and shotgun racks, as the circumstances dictated).

Each morning we reset the tire pressures to the cold-inflation recommendations on the doorjamb stickers and topped off the fuel tanks. We recorded parameters such as *vehicle speed, lateral g, and sector and overall times using a windshield-mounted, GPS-based Racelogic VBOX. Editors were assigned various cars, and at least two editors drove each car. It was left up to the individual how to extract the best time, but it usually involved running alternate cold and hot laps to keep the tire and brake temperatures in check, though some cars, such as the bawling Ferrari 458 Italia, were able to run multiple hot laps with no diminution in performance.

This year's competition was thick with big-bore cars. No fewer than 12 entries sported various iterations of the tried-and-true V-8. Head-to-head matchups included the Camaro ZL1 against the Shelby GT500, the BMW M5 versus the Audi S6, the *Charger and Caprice coppers, and the *Ferrari 458 and the Lexus LFA, two cars that ostensibly don't compete unless the Ferrari factory has, as in this case, piled on almost $100,000 in options. Bottle rockets such as the Abarth, the Subaru BRZ, and the Ford Focus ST breathed lots of life into the bottom price class.

We had to dodge some rain, but the sun returned and with our Arai buckets still reeking of that fresh, new-helmet smell, we motored down pit road in the service of *science and the generation of pretty graphs. Some days, it just doesn't seem like work.

SUBARU BRZ • 3:18.6
There is one thing the BRZ lacks. It's not power, though it wouldn't hurt to have more. It's not grip, though we wouldn't turn down stickier tires. It's brakes. We could barely crack off  a single flying lap before the middle pedal had all the firmness of a goose-down pillow. Otherwise, though, the BRZ jukes like a vehicular Adrian Peterson. *Evidence of the killer chassis can be found in the climbing esses (sector two), where the Subaru, shod with narrower, lower-perform*ance tires, beat the more powerful Hyundai Genesis R-Spec by half a second.

The BRZ forces you to take the proper line exiting the infield in sector four, or its neutral handling may dissolve into oversteer. But the Subaru is predictable, even lenient, when driven less than perfectly. It's the kind of car that gently instructs you, that tells you when things are right and gets slowly loose where you have it wrong. A perfect driving position is a bonus. The BRZ reminds us of the Mazda Miata in the way it responds intuitively to the driver's whim, but the BRZ feels more directly connected to our brains and is faster around the track. We wish the BRZ had its own spec series. That is, as long as the brakes could be upgraded.

LINK TO BRZ LAP @ VIR VIDEO

HYUNDAI GENESIS 3.8 R-SPEC • 3:13.9
There are few problems that horsepower cannot solve, but the Genesis 3.8 R-Spec is one of  them. Despite an additional 42 horsepower, the revised Genesis gains no time over its previous version. The engine itself is excellent, with plenty of power throughout the rev range, but it's more than this chassis can handle. Power oversteer is just a toe-squeeze away, a fact that leaves drivers fighting to keep the Hyundai on the pavement. Where the BRZ is pleasantly neutral and easily driftable, the Genesis never feels settled and struggles to go where it's aimed, so a tidy lap is difficult to achieve. Flat through the climbing esses? Not in this baby.

The Hyundai's R-Spec trim, with a firmer suspension, 19-inch wheels and tires, and larger brakes (Brembos all around), suggests track-readiness. Our experience says otherwise. As with the chassis, the rest of the Genesis feels disjointed and unprepared for lapping. The brakes began to give up halfway through the first lap of a session. And an inexplicable power sag happened after stabbing at the numb shift lever and releasing the clutch on upshifts. The most fun we had in the Genesis this year was not from driving it, but in watching the face of a frantic corner worker as he rushed to remove from the rear bumper a melted microphone lit on fire by the Hyundai's exhaust. The Genesis 3.8 R-Spec was the fastest car in this year's LL1 group, but it was far from the favorite.

[MarkMash]

The guys at rent4ring have kept the brakes but changed the brake pads (Endless MA45B) with Motul fluids and reckon that will be fine for a full day of action round' the ring.

Could be a slightly cheaper option than changing the full brake kit.

[supramkivtt2jz]

Good read! thanks for the link!

[Lonewolf]

It's been said over and over...tires and brakes...are all we need in order to flog

More power is just what we all want...

[Sport-Tech]

I'll take the LFA thanks. Never liked it much in photos, but in person at the auto show - OMG. Made the new Vette look like a joke.

[Captain Insano]

I have the paper version. My 5 year old son says it is his most favorite car magazine he has ever read. LOL...

This was an interesting read and comparison of cars by the magazine. I enjoyed the read.

[Chewie4299]

Originally Posted by Captain Insano

I have the paper version. My 5 year old son says it is his most favorite car magazine he has ever read. LOL...

This was an interesting read and comparison of cars by the magazine. I enjoyed the read.

I was waiting for my turn to get my haircut yesterday morning and was reading this issue. Made me want to subscribe again.

[bdbx18]

Originally Posted by Sport-Tech

I'll take the LFA thanks. Never liked it much in photos, but in person at the auto show - OMG. Made the new Vette look like a joke.

Yeah, the LFA has an incredibly beautiful exhaust note that makes you turn to see if a F1 car was on the street.

[ahausheer]

on a side note - what a crappy photoshop job.

[dammitcubs]

Originally Posted by bdbx18

Yeah, the LFA has an incredibly beautiful exhaust note that makes you turn to see if a F1 car was on the street.

agreed. one of the best exhaust note ever.

[WolfpackS2k]

Originally Posted by MarkMash

The guys at rent4ring have kept the brakes but changed the brake pads (Endless MA45B) with Motul fluids and reckon that will be fine for a full day of action round' the ring.

Could be a slightly cheaper option than changing the full brake kit.

A car this light and with only 200 hp should be just fine with a brake pad upgrade. I would imagine not even a brake fluid upgrade is needed.

[Bristecom]

Originally Posted by WolfpackS2k

A car this light and with only 200 hp should be just fine with a brake pad upgrade. I would imagine not even a brake fluid upgrade is needed.

Well if they say that the pedal lost firmness then that does mean its the brake fluid. But yeah, better tires, brake pads, and brake fluid is likely all that is needed to make this a good track car.

[smbstyle]

Not sure how I didn't come across the article until just now, but wow, don't bother trying to run from the cops if they're sporting a Charger:

DODGE CHARGER PURSUIT - 3:17.8

SUBARU BRZ - 3:18.6

[Suberman]

Originally Posted by Bristecom

Well if they say that the pedal lost firmness then that does mean its the brake fluid. But yeah, better tires, brake pads, and brake fluid is likely all that is needed to make this a good track car.

Pad fade can result in a soft feeling pedal, for some drivers. Unlikely to be a brake fluid problem. "Soft" pedal refers to pad fade, spongy pedal means fluid boiling. Fluid boiling is pretty rare.

Street pads are not suitable for track work. The street pads on the BRZ are really excellent but you don't brake very often in this car on the street. There's very little need to brake this car except for red lights and maroons.