Car and Driver lap times -- Cobalt faster than GT?

[mattkimsey]

These are the lap times at VIR:

1) Ford GT - 3:00.7
2) Z06 - 3:01.1
3) Viper SRT10 - 3:01.6
4) Lotus Elise - 3:09.2
5) Corvette - 3:09.3
6) Cayman S - 3:09.5
7) BMW M6 - 3:10.0
8) Shelby GT500 - 3:11.0*
9) 350Z Track - 3:12.5
10) Lancer Evo MR - 3:13.5
11) Charger SRT8 - 3:18.2
12) Mazda RX-8 - 3:19.0
13) Cobalt SS - 3:20.6
14) Mustang GT - 3:20.9
15) VW GTI - 3:25.1
16) Civic Si - 3:26.5
17) Mazda MX-5 - 3:29.3

I guess being 500lbs lighter was enough for the Cobalt to make up for having less power. The 350z was also suprising, the wider tires on the newer ones has really helped.

 

[kooldawg6]

I wouldn't pay much mind to those #'s. Most of the time they only have a few laps in the cars to get used to them before they start doing their "hot laps". MM&FF would be one to get more real world #'s from. I read years ago in there that they aren't afraid to push the car to the outter limits, breaking parts at times doing so. Major car mags are afraid and/or are warned by the manufacture not to abuse the cars to extract 100% performance of these cars.

The Cobalt being .3 seconds/lap faster is nothing. For the Mustang driver that could have been a missed shift, missing a few apexes, getting into a corner to hot and using to much brake or to much gas coming out of a turn and sliding the back end to much, etc.

However, seeing the Corvette's time at roughly 11 seconds faster than the GT makes me wonder about the thread on here to make you car out handle a Vette... 11 seconds is A LOT of time to make up!!!!!! Better suspension, lots more power and near perfect driving would all have to be used to make that difference up. A few changes in both the GT and driving technique, I could easily see knocking off the Cobalt, RX-8 and Charger though.

What would be interesting to see would be the lap times of an '03 Cobra in that lineup being that it was much more suited to road racing with more power and IRS.

 

[stang8urimport]

MM&FF is not "real world" They are expert Mustang drivers. Not anywhere close to the common guy.