The guys at Garage 419 have gone and made the simple matter of figuring out which baby super car is fastest around a 14 mile strip of German tarmac more complicated. They've synced the video of the Nurburgring laps of the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and Nissans new GTR; and they've added a master timer to clarify the situation. The results are... interesting. First off, both timers seem a little optimistic compared to 419's, with the Chevy's being the brighter of the two. Second, the Corvette is clearly faster, which I'd bet half the Internet wasn't expecting.
I wasn't really expecting it either to be frank. It didn't seem possible for the GTR's new-tech approach of combined AWD and super-quick dual-clutch transmission to be bested. It has been. The ZR1 is a simple combination of light weight and large grunt, but that's not all it has going for it. If you watch closely you can see that the driver of the Corvette is pushing much harder than the GTR's pilot. I think that's because the Corvette's softer suspension is letting him attack the curbs more. Anywhere there's a straight though, the Corvette is off into the distance and the GTR is looking at a tailgate. Oh, and it also shows that I can no longer claim disinterest in this affair.
What the video really shows up though is the need for some measure of standardization. I'm not to the point of calling for one driver to drive all these cars in like conditions as I fell that will actually limit the performance of all of them. A driver familiar with the car he or she is driving will be able to extract more performance by knowing what the car can do in extreme situations. I would however like to see one line on the track where these tests start and stop, and someone from the press should be able to hook up independent timing equipment.
Alas, this is not really a likely scenario, so maybe the best thing to do is sit back and watch the video.
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