Hey all! Thanks for watching. To answer some of the most commonly asked questions: Where's the Chevrolet Corvette? We ran it last year: www.caranddriver.com/features/a35368145/2020-chevrolet-corvette-stingray-z51-lightning-lap/ Where's the Tesla Model S Plaid and Model 3 Performance? We'd love for them to show up next year. Where's the Porsche Taycan? It ran last year: www.caranddriver.com/features/a35386386/2020-porsche-taycan-turbo-s-lightning-lap/ Where's the leaderboard? Right here: www.caranddriver.com/features/a23319884/lightning-lap-times-historical-data/
Man that GT3 is so pretty. Impressive results from the Type R, too. I know not everything can be included, but would have loved to see an STO or F8 Tributo to see how they compare.
Doesn't Ferrari puss out when it comes to actually letting people test their cars since they like to only release info that makes them look good? Kind of like a China/NK syndrome, not enough balls to make a baby, let alone take criticism.
Lol prob I bet there almost all like that though. They would get the best numbers under there team I guarantee it. Prob doing everything they can to get an advantage. Like wind slightly downhill etc lol
@@willthomas5953 but they clearly all aren't like that because I've never heard of any other manufacturer outright refusing to provide car journalists press cars for testing against competition or even just solo testing to confirm their own performance claims.
@@moogle68 there’s still lap times for some around the Nurburgring but they aren’t official. Pista did it I think 7 minutes flat but that was a few years ago
Nice but it barely beats the fastest time set by a lowly 2019 C7 Vette ZR1 around VIR (Benz - 2:37 vs ZR1 - 2:37.25). During the 2018 C&D Lightning Lap the '19 ZR1 time was 2:39.5
Thanks for having the cars, narration, track runs all in one video. I hate having to search endlessly for one individual car or the time it ran. Next year, I'm betting that the c8 zo6 corvette runs a great time.
I’m here a year later to say that they are absolutely salivating over it. It’s fucking awesome and the pride of the US. It’s our answer to the snooty ultra expensive euros.
@@shawndejong6699 we are just talking performance here. Not performace/dollar ratio. Porsche does amazing things with significantly less power. The 760hp ZR1 in 2019 is less than a second faster than the 992 GT3 in this video.....all with 503hp. That is why you pay so much for a Porsche.
I thought no one would ever finally test the Mach1 on the track, but it finally happened and damn it;s impressive. Why have so many other auto journalists not done this. It’s like they don’t care and decided to ignore it.
The fit and finish of Ford cars is very poor and they often get bagged on hard for this fact. No one doubts a Mustang (or a Vette) is a fast car. They just dont compare as a whole most of the time and it reflects poorly on the manufacturer.
Raise your hand if you crave the Mach 1!!! ❤️☺️👊 Truly a beautiful and well executed S550 Mustang. (And this is coming from a GM guy of 21 years…) That 911 GT3 though… 🤤 That lap time is otherworldly for a naturally aspirated, production street/track car. Lastly, Carlos: great narration and cadence as always! Love your work, old friend.
I have to say I'm impressed with the type r and the mach 1. I'm a little disappointed in the BMW's but tires I guess. We all know the porsches are track beasts.
In defense of the BMW, it has the most technologies packed in that small package. Not the fastest but still a great driver's car that will deliver fun experience for all types of drivers. With that said, that Mach 1 is unbelievable!
I always find it interesting how the Type R is the only FWD car that gets compared to other more powerful vehicles. Porsches are only engineered for track, which is crazy but amazing machines.
@@goochigoochs3836 No defense needed. I worked for bmw for 12 years and still own a 535i. Trust me I know all to well of how BMW's are the ultimate driving machine. Ironically i work for Ford now and also have driven the mach 1, gt350 and gt500.
My favorite article of the year! Excited to hear/see all the onboards you post! This is one of the only print articles I still will go out of my way to buy as well!
@@wanglee21 I can see 1929. Happening again. It’s all planned out. It’s by design. Look at America ha ha ha ha Biden is the president. Hilarious. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Look at the 85 billion dollars worth of equipment that America has given to the Taliban it’s all done on purpose. Donald trump says it was done on purpose. There are very dark forces at work that control the so called government. And these are the powers that decide how the world is run. It’s ao in your face now they are not even trying to hide it. But it’s been going on for so long it’s now just a part of the human psyche to accept it as normal. Ffs we are doomed
@@vroomgc It’s a FWD car regardless of whether it’s a track car or not. To deny its impressiveness is dramatic. The Type S’s engine is underwhelming but Acura worked its magic with it’s SH-AWD system considering it’s weight.
@@vroomgc The Civic Type R is hardly a "track only car" It is an extremely spacious four door hatchback. At its price point it is simply unrivaled. Add to it legendary Honda reliability and durability and you have a future classic. I would literally take the Type R over any car in this test. Except the Porsche 911 GT3 that is.
You guys have some pretty capable drivers. These are some immensely fast cars. I don't think keyboard warriors recognize just how intimidating this task is.
"Intimidating"?? Nah. Not at all. And, especially not intimidating on an empty race track... Given all the nanny controls and the fact that the only qualification to 'entry' is $$$s, at the end of the day, they're all road cars with full OE warranties meant to be sold to a wide spectrum of people with equally wide variation in driver skill. All that HP with a complete lack of nanny controls?? Now, genuine driver skill is required, and not everyone possesses that..obviously.
@@elgar6743 Taking the uphill esses at 125 mph is the very definition of intimidating. Try doing them at 70 mph in a normal car. PS: Most of the nanny's were likely turned off to maximize the performance of the cars.
It would have been nice to see the time of each car posted on one side of the screen - for the whole video. With each car time added as the video progressed. That way we could keep track easily.
Yeah, it's tricky juggling how to present the times. For safety, you can see all the times from every Lighting Lap event here www.caranddriver.com/features/a23319884/lightning-lap-times-historical-data/
I'd love to see a C&D BRZ/GT86 project car with different stages of tire,brake, suspension, and engine mods to see how fast you can get them to go, given various budgets.
Loved the article. Great Job!!!! Should love to see next time some EVs in the mix. Perhaps the Porsche Taycan, Mustang MACH-e and of course a Tesla Model S. Keep up the great work and thank you for developing and sharing such an excellent review.
Wow that n/a rwd Mach 1 is very impressive and looks so good too. What a great pkg for the $$, .......and of course the GT3 is a beautiful gem as usual. That Black series, jaw dropping. I love many brands and appreciate them all
I've always been impressed by Porsche's ability to improve the GT3 from gen to gen without adding turbos or a ton of more horsepower, it's one of my favorites all time. The Mustang is a great package for the money it's too bad (and greedy) dealers are marking them up so much.
Carlos, post the leaderboard at the end! Cmon man. 😀 edit: how impressive is that Mach 1 lap time. Too bad you have the Mustang cars and coffee image to live down.
I saw a GT350 in the bushes just a few days ago. Officer on the scene giving the young driver a "good talkin' to". The car was probably not totalled...but close.
@@phillm156 Depends what options you add on but barebone its 60 and it still comes with 500hp thats all you need to beat anyone with a mid engine layout
I wonder if we can get them to test the Mach 1 with the automatic and Handling Package next year. Given how much quicker the 10R80 accelerates over the manual, a new LL2 lap record could be set!
The FWD, economy car-based Civic Type R posting an identical time to the Ford GT from the first LL is poetic. Every year's Lightning Lap has many stories. This one is my favourite of this year.
The Type R is so advanced it's only competition are car's that have the advantage over it by 100-200hp. At this point nothing power wise that can even compete with it.
@@wanglee21 That’s such a crazy thing. It just goes to prove how much passion Honda has for its performance cars. The Type R is so affordable and such an engineering piece of art especially comparison to its main competitors like the Veloster N and the STI
@@WestCoastSupercarsandClassics The GT3 is not the benchmark. The previous production record at V.I.R was set by the ZR1. Stop giving Porsche credit for others achievements
🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷👏🏻, This was so awesome ! GT3 and black series were astonishing, so was the suv X3MC wow, for an suv ! The narration was key to this video, type R and mach 1 also really shined in these tests …
90% of the time, American car videos are cringe, "it's in 'Murica so it's obviously the best circuit in the world, with the best drivers, in the best 'Murican automobeeeeels". In this case though, it was actually pretty good, and worth watching. Well done. This video shows that tyres make a huge difference in laptimes. As such, the only way to really test the differences between the cars, is by using identical tyres. Run flats are absolutely terrible. My own M140i was actually 'dangerous' on it's standard Bridgestone Potenza RFT's, yet when I put Pilot sport 4 on the car was transformed.
I wonder how they determined which 21 cars to showcase, out of the dozens of other potential options. Was it strictly a case of availability? With no exotics like Ferrari, Lambo, lotus, Aston, McLaren, then why the AMG GT Black series?
The Porsches and other $100k++ vehicles show you that just because you have a boatload of power doesn't mean you can get it around a track fast. Chassis/suspensions, shocks, tires, etc. are just as important. I love Dodge/the Hellcats and what they have done- pushed the marketplace so that 500+ horsepower seems normal. The Corvette C8 ZO6 w/ZO7 and carbon wheels will be a track monster if it does what many of us anticipate it will. I have my name on a couple lists for the ZR1 w/ZO7 so I'm really holding out!!
I love this black series so much. From watching Shmee driving it on the Ring to this. Sound is not the best but everything else is just too good to pass up.
The Cayenne turbo gt is insanely impressive but I still fail to understand y someone would get a sports suv when you can get a sports sedan that is more practical and would house the suv in every “sport” category
Next year, for fun, you should do a comparo of the C&D 10 best vehicles. It would be interesting to see how they did on this track… All being $100,000 or less.
You can see the individual laps here: www.caranddriver.com/features/a38955362/lightning-lap-2022/ This week we'll upload videos of each driver giving commentary of every vehicle they drove.
Isn't it amazing what the Porsche Engineers have done with the 992 chassis already? It's the "base" GT3 and they've already incorporated double-wishbone front suspension, as well as many other track features into it, allowing this new car to beat the 991.2 GT3RS around VIR. I can't wait for the 992 GT3RS (but just hope it's offered with a manual, like the 997's used to be).
im confident that the 992 GT3RS will only be offered in the PDK because it is a track weapon, solely built to go around a track as fast as possible. Even though manual transmissions are a lot more engaging for the driver, it isn't faster. that is why porsche is offereing the standard 992 GT3 in a manual because it is less track focused and more of a purist car. Look at the cayman GT4 and GT4RS. the GT4 comes with the PDK or manual, but the GT4RS only comes with the PDK.
I can’t believe cars have gotten this fast. I’ve followed this series from the beginning. There was a time when the 911 Turbo didn’t break into the 2 minute range. Now there is a 3:00 min Civic lap time.
much credits to tire manufacturers. Put modern cup2's (which isn't that much fast tire even) on 15-year old sportcat and re-lap it, and you will be shocked.
@@maximborodyuk3773 This is true, tires have a great impact on the lap time. Still, I wouldn’t have imagined a Civic in the 3:00 range. I think the Boss 302 Laguna Seca had done a 3:02 some years back. It’s incredible.
Next year - Corvette ZR1 (praying we get it!), Tesla's chonky and quirky Plaid (Model S *or* X - either would be interesting - hopefully with carbon brakes and maybe Cup 2 tires), and ANY of the lower cost cars are great...anything light, small, fun, and reasonably priced! Thanks for this vid - a LOT of time and work goes into something like this and we appreciate every second of it.
@@arkhsm...sounds nice, but the, Caterham is a super difficult cookie to get in the States...plus, I don't see them fitting into these comparisons as it's necessarily not an everyday "normal" car....
Next year I want to see the new WRX. I’m curious to see how it compares to last gen now that it’s running on Subie’s crossover platform. Also, where are the EVs? Mach E GT, Model 3 Performance, Plaid? And here’s a prediction, the Electra N makes some fans on the track next year, maybe the Kona N too.
@Thor Odin son Taycan has done more sequential laps around VIR than the high school vape pen specials from Subaru/Toyota. Also 17 seconds a lap faster.
I'm missing the Shelby GT500 and of course, the C8 Corvette. Less SUVs, more track oriented cars. And remind BMW to bring extra tires! Great job and I really enjoy watching.
@@samuelcartledge3200 Pobst set almost an identical lap (0.15s apart) time with a GT500 track pack and a 991.2 GT3 RS around Chuckwalla raceway. It would've kicked a lot of ass here, probably not on the same level as the 992 gt3 because of traction issues, but it certainly would've been in the mid 2:40s.
