I love Lightning Lap comparisons, love VIR and being an analytical I delve way too much into the details, lol. First, here are a few friendly reminders when making comparisons:

1) Year to year comparisons are only "ballpark" comparisons. Weather and track state (how green the track is) potentially change lap times significantly. I mean a 1-2 seconds per lap difference is easily possible if both variables are in play across two different years. As an example, tracks speed up across one weekend in a pro race series as they rubber in. The magazines don't tend to mention this fact but any racing fan will know it.

2) VIR was completely repaved in late 2013 for the 2014 season. The new surface sped up the course quite a bit... so cars like the C7Z51 compared favorably to the C6Z06/Z07 but a lot of that was the new surface being a lot grippier. They widened sections at that point too but two key corners, Nascar and Oak Tree, were widened later, in 2016 I think. That made both those corners faster as you have more room on exit. And both are tricky, particularly Nascar, so it helps the lap time.

3) Car and Driver uses staffers to lap. The guy who sets most of their times is a good driver but not a former pro with lots of race wins like a Randy Pobst or Christian Gebhardt or Andy Pilgrim. What does that mean? A few things I believe: a) he won't get as close to the ultimate potential in each car b) edgy cars will be comparatively tougher to extract more time from vs. stable, confidence building cars like the C8 c) times may get faster year on year as skills develop more than a pro who is coming in highly skilled from the start d) coaching from the manufacturer will help more than coaching to a pro. I think someone like Pobst has gotten good guidance to set faster laps too, but Colwell will be helped more. I mention this because I know Mero has been at Lightning Lap multiple times coaching the staff on how to go faster. He is uniquely suited to do it because he has set lap records at VIR. Mero did this for the ZR1 lap time, as an example, and the lap time fell a lot with more laps under his tutelage. I don't think all manufacturers do this and if they do the coaching is probably more generic than someone like Mero would provide.


The regular ZL1 was slower than the C8. I came "this close" to buying a ZL1 so I had checked out all track day references I could find. I mention it only to say that C&D had a problem with their ZL1 laps at VIR and they stated that without the problems they would have gotten into the 2:48s or even 2:47s. So odds are the ZL1 will beat out the C8 at VIR... which is a horsepower track (despite the Grand West configuration's infield section) with three very fast straights.

I think this is probably true. I also think the C7 GS lap by C&D was perhaps one of the better I've seen from them at extracting the car's potential. The C8 is easier to drive at the limit and they did a great lap with it. But they also did a great lap with the GS. Want proof? Look at what is perhaps the hairiest turn at VIR... the off camber, downhill left after the esses. The C7GS may be the fastest car ever through that turn by them. Faster than the McLaren Senna. They went almost as fast with the 2019 ZR1 but the GS even beat that through that turn. My guess is they were getting some high quality coaching from Jim Mero that day, lol.

It did. I actually think that Porsche is keeping it on regular summer tires so it doesn't match or beat the GT3RS. It would have beaten the 991.2 GT3RS lap time at VIR if it was on Cup 2s or Trofeo Rs. And don't forget the McLaren 720s from a few years ago.... it too ran on a regular summer tire.... not a Cup2/Trofeo R.... and set a blistering lap time.

That was an answer to will the GT4 with PDK be faster... and I think you may be right. However, the PDK has 10% shorter gearing than the GT4 manual so perhaps even Pobst will eke out just a little more speed with it?

Someone else corrected this... the McLaren 765LT was faster. I think the 765LT is outrageously fast with acceleration which helps a ton at VIR due to 3 very fast straights. However, the short gearing and torque make the car edgy. Add in a non pro driver and the fact that they weren't optimizing the 765LT traction control (they describe this error in the article) and that lap time is slower than it ought to be.

As much as I love lap times.... the quality of the handling and the experience has to win out for most of us, doesn't it? I mean, wouldn't most of us prefer a more enjoyable ride to one that is a few seconds faster on a 4 mile track? Most track day drivers can't extract all the performance anyway!