Since the day the car was born, the goal of chasing faster, higher, and stronger has not changed. Models of different brands and different manufacturers, in order to compete for this title, do not hesitate to pour all their efforts to fight for your life.
Many manufacturers have hyped up their own beautiful results on the track, using track lap as a big selling point. But how much moisture there is in this lap, many people do not know.
That is, the car they run out of this lap speed is probably different from the one you bought.
Since the lap speed is driven by a person, the driver's factor must be taken into account. In order to brush the circle, many manufacturers will hire professional racers to brush the circle.
These racers have trained and raced for a long time, and their line and car feel on the racing track are far superior to others. Even the media counterparts who have done test drives and tests for more than a decade, and their strength is also one day at a time.
So in many cases they let professional drivers brush out the lap speed, ordinary people are difficult to brush out.
It's like the Porsche 911 (992) GT3, which debuted a year ago, and even saying that all the laps brushed by Porsche at the Nordschleigh circuit are made by professional drivers. Lars Kern, Porsche Royal Test Driver, has long been testing Porsche's production car, Timo Bernhard, Porsche Le Mans Champion driver, they brush out the lap speed is incomparable to the average person.
They have made many suggestions for the control of mass production cars, and they know more about the models to be tested than ordinary people, and their understanding of test cars is much deeper than that of ordinary people. To compare lap speed with professional drivers can only be regarded as self-defeating.
The lack of driving skills as well as professional drivers is one thing, but more importantly the difference in the car itself. But many people will ask, the car company took the car on the field to brush the circle, is it different from the car I bought?
The Honda Civic Type R (FK8), the beloved car of faith, won the title of the fastest mass-produced front-drive car at the North Circuit at that time with a time of 7:43.8. But what many people don't know is that the Type R tested at that time was quite different from the mass-produced version of Type R.
First, the entire vehicle was fitted with a roll cage. Although the roll cage will increase the weight of the car a lot, it is very large for the stiffness and strength of the vehicle body. Especially on tracks like New North, where the surface is bumpy like a normal street and the undulating is very roller coaster-like, the load-bearing body still has to bear great pressure.
Although the FK8's body stiffness has been improved, in the intense driving of the track, the slight deformation of the body can also make the handling unpredictable, which in turn will affect the lap speed. Therefore, to strive for better lap speed, the roll cage is indispensable.
In addition, if you want to increase the lap speed, you need to reduce the burden on the engine. In particular, accessories such as air conditioners that affect the operation of the engine are still not small restrictions on the power on the engine wheels. Coupled with the anti-roll cage that has been installed, plus the weight of the removal will be made up by removing the air conditioner.
Therefore, a Civic Type R equipped with an anti-roll frame and removing the air conditioner is very different from the original car in terms of power and handling. So the FK8 Type R 7:43 lap time is fast, but I don't think that's the true level of the original Type R.
Of course, if a car wants to run faster laps on the track, better grip is a must. All the power, all the cornering control limits, is ultimately achieved through the medium of the car's most direct contact with the road surface - the tire.
Therefore, in order to brush the circle, some car companies will cooperate with tire suppliers to develop a "special tire" specially created for test models to provide better grip for test cars.
Porsche, which often brushes circles in the Norburgring Nord Ring, is an old player in this regard. In testing the 992 GT3, Porsche and Michelin worked together to create the Pilot Sport Cup 2R tyres specifically for this model, with a softer rubber formulation better suited for short lap testing.
In daily driving, such a soft tire is bound to have a sharp decline in durability, so in the mass production car sold, the hardness of the tire will be slightly improved, which will also lead to a loss of grip.
Therefore, Porsche officially measured the north ring speed of 6:59, and after handing over the production car to the media "Sport auto", the measured lap speed became 7:10, a full 10 seconds slower.
I just talked about the effect of tire grip on lap speed. However, in the lap test, the influence of external factors will also be very large.
For example, the temperature, the difference in temperature and environment at the time of testing, and the impact on the vehicle itself are multifaceted.
Tires are one of the components affected by temperature, the lower the temperature, the harder the tire will be, the harder the tire, as I just said, the grip will be worse. This is why many lap tests are performed in the summer.
In addition, the road surface also has a great influence on the lap speed. Too bumpy and dilapidated track surfaces can easily bring an unstable posture to the vehicle, while affecting the grip. But that's not to say that the newer the road grip, the better.
Some track surfaces are paved with softer asphalt, and smooth surfaces can weaken grip before the asphalt surface begins to wear out. Just this past winter, part of the Nürburgring Nordschleigh circuit has undergone a new round of asphalt resurfacing, although there are no car companies to conduct formal lap tests on the resurfaced Nordschleife, but I believe that the impact of this asphalt resurfacing on the lap is still not small.
The brushing performance of car companies has certain reference value, but do not take lap speed as the only criterion for judging the performance of the vehicle.
There are many aspects of the performance of the car, and the track lap often reflects the upper limit of a car's performance. The professional driver's own capabilities, as well as complete logistics, allow the vehicle to maximize its performance. The average customer lacks top driving technology and complete logistical support, and it is very difficult to squeeze out the extreme performance of the vehicle.
The result is that many times, ordinary customers want to squeeze the ultimate performance of this car, and they end up squeezing themselves.
So look at the lap car buying thing, yes, but not quite right. The most important thing is to look at your own needs and find the car that suits you best.