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Originally Posted by sdiver68
Yes, road race lap times are the best overall indicator. Either C&D or R&T (I forget which since I subscribe to both) is promising quarterly updates on VIR lap times. Personally, I'd like to see them at Road America so I can compare to my own times and I know that track much better, but that's just me  One thing to keep in mind, though since we are splitting hairs, is different tracks more fully weight certain factors. For instance, a huge track like RA puts a premium on acceleration and top speed, where as a smaller track like say Barber puts more of a premium on handling for best lap times. And none of those lap times indicate as much unless each car is put on the same brand and type of rubber...something which the better Sportbike-oriented motorcycle mags do in all of their comparos in addition to actual dyno testing, but the car mags claim would be too expensive 
I like 1/4 trap speed (versus time) for acceleration because it's much less dependent on the driver's ability to get a great and quick launch. |
I also subscribe to C&D and R&T and read about them supplying VIR lap times for specific peformance vehicles :rocks: And I agree and neglected to mention that all road course are not created equal lending to your point on each track having certain characteristics. Another excellent point you mentioned is that the lap times must be on the same track but I don't think we need to go as far as using the same brand and type of rubber in every case. What I mean in this is obviously if you are using R compound tires and pitting it against snow tires, it would not be a fair comparison. But just for the sake of simplicity, similar to what C&D or R&T are planning to do with the published lap times, I only meant to say that a car's general performance can be more easily extracted and understood with lap times that include speed and time check points.
Completely agree that trap speed in the 1/4 is less dependent on driver's ability. However, I have noticed in the past that I would gain higher trap speed at times with terrible 0-60ft time. I never quite understood this
