Lightning Lap 2018

[kevm14]

Oh man this just dropped. I just noticed the YouTube videos on the C&D channel. Haven't looked anywhere else yet.

[kevm14]

21 cars. 22 videos including the highlight reel: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl ... ymQNzciX5N

[kevm14]

Grand Cherokee Trailhawk set a record - for heaviest car at LL ever. Haha.

I don't have time to watch these videos but it is playing in order. Civic Type R posted a 3:03.9 which ties the Focus RS down to the tenth.

[bill25]

So the Civic is awesome and the RS sucks?

I would definitely rather have the RS for practical and more fun everyday driving.

[kevm14]

Type R drives better, has a better back seat, and gives up no performance to the AWD car. Get a Subaru for the winter.

[bill25]

We're gonna have to agree to disagree here.

[kevm14]

You really going to drive your $40k Focus RS in the winter with those salty, slushy icicles hanging off the back of each wheel well?

[kevm14]

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/l ... g-lap-2018

Driving a couple million dollars’ worth of cars with a total of more than 10,000 horsepower at our favorite track makes us wish we had money.

[kevm14]

There is a certain assumption that the more expensive the car, the quicker it should lap. So we include all the go-fast parts in the base price and group cars by their cost (LL1–LL5). Well, except for SUVs. We lump all of them into one group: LLTruck. At some point, SUV track performance will start to rival that of cars, much the way sports sedans did to coupes in the 1960s. But we’re not there yet.

Still, cars have come a long way over these past 12 years that we've been lapping Virginia International Raceway's devilish 4.1 miles and 24 turns that make up its Grand Course. Consider that nearly a quarter of the machines we’ve assembled here have at least 700 horsepower on tap. Three of those, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, McLaren 720S, and Porsche 911 GT2 RS Weissach, will fight for the top spot, while the two others, the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody and the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, fight for the most syllables on a single OEM badge.

I don't understand the coupe/sedan/SUV comment. Sedans are barely heavier and no higher up than their coupe counterparts. SUVs are a different animal entirely.

[kevm14]

We’d hoped to put the portly Trackhawk in better LLTruck context, but Alfa Romeo withdrew its Stelvio Quadrifoglio at the eleventh hour and Porsche raised an eyebrow at the idea of supporting four cars. We agreed that the 718 Cayman GTS, 911 GT3, and 911 GT2 RS were the more important and interesting entries, and so the Macan Turbo stayed home, leaving us with just two go-fast 4x4s, the Jeep and a Mercedes-AMG GLC63 S coupe.

Alfa also withdrew the Giulia Quadrifoglio, to which we’d extended a return invite after the car suffered mechanical issues last year. That left the 600-hp BMW M5 and the less powerful but equally intriguing Kia Stinger GT to represent mid-size performance four-doors. We added a Honda Accord Sport 2.0T to the sedan roster because readers keep asking for times on the cars they drive every day. We’d bring more family-friendly products if we had the time, but the Accord stands as the benchmark for the commuter class. Its ability on-track was surprising, especially since most mainstream products would buckle at the knees when faced with VIR.

Representing the enthusiast end of the affordable spectrum are the newly commissioned, 275-hp Chevy Camaro Turbo 1LE and 205-hp Subaru BRZ tS, both in the LL1 price range. In LL2, Honda’s tantalizing and visually polarizing Civic Type R reminds the world what a red Honda “H” on a car’s nose means, and the Ford Mustang GT Performance Package Level 2 brings Shelby-like track chops to the working man. Hoping to improve on its 2014 performance, Subaru sent another WRX STI, this one a 310-hp Type RA. Audi bridged LL2 and LL3 with a pair of turbocharged five-cylinder MQB-plat­form cars, the RS3 and the TT RS. It also answered the LL3 call with its new 444-hp RS5 coupe.

I love the variety of offerings. Throwing in the Accord is a little ridiculous though but their rationale is understandable.

Indicative of another industry trend, the Huracán is one of just four cars here without forced induction.