mx5cartalk.com

Thought I might share this little compilation I've been working on recently.

You've seen the "Power Lap" board on Top Gear. Now here is an Aussie version thanks to the lap times published by MOTOR magazine since 2003. MOTOR has tested at several different circuits over the years, but the most common venues are Wakefield Park in NSW and Winton & Phillip Island in VIC. The tables include the corresponding issue date, who was driving each car, and the surface conditions (dry, damp, wet, etc).

View the complete spreadsheet
(I'd like to embed the graphs but the forum won't allow it)

Some observations ...

Firstly, the quickest car on the tables is the 911 GT2. It barely beat the MX-5 Club NSW record for a Class 8 MX-5 at Wakefield Park (by 0.5s), but was 4.6s quicker than the MX-5 Club VIC record for an open MX-5 at Winton (long). But you'd expect a $450k performance car to be quick!

Secondly, news that won't please Porsche is that the Aussie-spec R35 GT-R (Jan 08) was quicker than both 911 Turbo (Jan 07) and 911 GT3 (Jan 08) around Winton, although they have never been tested on the same day (yet - watch out for the upcoming Performance Car 2009 issue), and both Porsches have been upgraded recently too.

Thirdly, MOTOR have punted quite a few MX-5s around the tracks over the years. Here's a quick summary of what I've managed to find so far:

Wakefield Park
NC2 1:14.1 (Warren Luff, Aug 2009)
NC1 1:14.55 (John Boston, Nov 2005)
SE 1:14.6 (Rick Bates, Sep 2004)

Winton
SP 1:44.7 (Cam McConville, Apr 2002)
SE 1:47.0 (Warren Luff, Mar 2005)
NB8B 1:49.88 (Cam McConville, Apr 2001)

Phillip Island
NB8A 2:07.27 (Cam McConville, Jun 1998)
NA8A 2:13.94 (Larry Perkins, Jan 1994)

Oran Park North
NC1 0:37.0 (Warren Luff, Sep 2006)
NC1 0:37.6 (Warren Luff, Nov 2006)

Adelaide International
NB8A 1:13.4 (Steve Knight, Dec 2006)
NC1 1:14.2 (Steve Knight, Dec 2006)
NA8A Clubman 1:16.59 (Steve Knight, Dec 2006)

The TTS was faster than I would have thought.

Cool spreadsheet though

Guran wrote:Secondly, news that won't please Porsche is that the Aussie-spec R35 GT-R (Jan 08) was quicker than both 911 Turbo (Jan 07) and 911 GT3 (Jan 08) around Winton, although they have never been tested on the same day (yet - watch out for the upcoming Performance Car 2009 issue), and both Porsches have been upgraded recently too.

Just be aware that you can't necessarily compare laptimes for different days, as weather, temperature, track condition can make several seconds difference...

And a GT2 would be a better track car comparison vs the GTR, imho..
(though I cant see anyone owning a Porsche GT3 or Turbo changing it for a Datsun.....)

Guran wrote:Firstly, the quickest car on the tables is the 911 GT2. It barely beat the MX-5 Club NSW record for a Class 8 MX-5 at Wakefield Park (by 0.5s), but was 4.6s quicker than the MX-5 Club VIC record for an open MX-5 at Winton (long). But you'd expect a $450k performance car to be quick!

This speaks of two things:
1) Winton long track is more of a power circuit than Wakefield
2) The level of "Open Class" competition in Vic isn't up to the standard of NSW.

who is "Clearly"?

WRX 1:15.40?

moo moo nel wrote:who is "Clearly"?

WRX 1:15.40?

Clearly, you mean Sean Cleary . Agree that 1:15.4 was a tardy lap time for the MY09 WRX (the MY08 WRX on the other hand, even Luff only managed 1:14.9 in that turd-burger). So was Cleary's 1:15.2 in the Lancer Ralliart in the same road test (Jan 09). In comparison, Warren Luff clocked times of 1:11.8 in the WRX and 1:14.3 in the Ralliart (Aug 09). Similarly, Cleary clocked 1:16.5 in the NC2 MX-5 (Jun 09) whereas Luff produced a 1:14.1 (Aug 09). On the other hand, Sean Cleary lapped the MINI Cooper S Cabrio in 1:14.1 (Jun 09) compared with Luff's 1:13.17 in the MINI Cooper S hatchback (Oct 08), so he's not too far off there. There was nothing in the articles to suggest that the conditions at Wakefield were unsuitable either. It appears that Sean Cleary 's driving style suits some cars (MINI, Ralliart) more than others (WRX, MX-5), whereas Warren Luff is able to extract some very impressive laps for anything he steps into.

Updated my first post with some more times for MX-5s and the spreadsheet now includes data from Phillip Island.

anyone know if the aussie spec gtr comes with the dunlops or the bridgestones?

Guran wrote:Updated my first post with some more times for MX-5s and the spreadsheet now includes data from Phillip Island.

Sweet, I'm 4 seconds faster than McConville.

Matty wrote:Sweet, I'm 4 seconds faster than McConville.

Nice one! Keep in mind that these times are for stock cars on normal road tyres (except when the car is sold with semi-slicks).

Guran wrote:

Matty wrote:Sweet, I'm 4 seconds faster than McConville.

Nice one! Keep in mind that these times are for stock cars on normal road tyres (except when the car is sold with semi-slicks).

So Matty statement then holds true. He holds the standard NB record at PI, on normal road tyres.

None of those Winton or PI times are all that good compared to our own club times, even accounting for possible damp tracks.

manga_blue wrote:

Guran wrote:

Matty wrote:Sweet, I'm 4 seconds faster than McConville.

Nice one! Keep in mind that these times are for stock cars on normal road tyres (except when the car is sold with semi-slicks).

So Matty statement then holds true. He holds the standard NB record at PI, on normal road tyres.

None of those Winton or PI times are all that good compared to our own club times, even accounting for possible damp tracks.

Cool. Didn't know that. I had just heard that semislicks were permitted in the stock classes in Victoria. Is this true?

No.

Some of the guys use Kumho KU36's, but that's it. No R spec allowed.

brand new Hankook R-S2s and 120000km old suspension...

I would imagine though that they drive within more respectable limits, and may be more used to the handling limits of race cars than road cars...

James Sanderson did a 2:07 or 2:08 in a bog standard NA8 at the Island too.

Matty wrote:I would imagine though that they drive within more respectable limits.

I beg to differ. In fact, It's the opposite.
I reckon if your a race driver, driving a 'press' car, you'd absolutely thrash the living daylights out of it.
Which IMHO, makes your time at the Island super impressive.