Wednesday, October 28, 2015

2015 Lightning Lap: LL1 Class Spotlight

-Every year, we take the hottest performance cars to Virginia International Raceway for our Lightning Lap competition, where our editors turn lap after lap on the 4.1-mile Grand West Course in pursuit of each model's single quickest time. The contenders are grouped into classes based on price; here, take a tour of this year's LL1 class, which includes cars with prices of up to $34,999.-Think of Mazda's affable roadster as Snuggle, the giggling fabric-softener bear, in the form of a sports car. Bend the MX-5 into the right-hander at Horse Shoe and the inside wheels droop hilariously, the gaps yawning at the high afternoon sun. Bomb over the curbing through the uphill esses like you would in a Nissan GT-R and it becomes a sad bear, the hard impacts upsetting the body and the tires' traction.-Yet when the car is leaned over and the tires are loaded, the Miata behaves like a perfect rear-drive pet, vectoring precisely with the throttle. Keep your foot in the right pedal to swing wide in a turn, or lift to tuck the nose and cinch your line tighter. The rear tires slide with a controlled and predictable attitude when they do break free, and they're easily brought back into line with quick, tactile steering. Nestled in the hammocklike seat, the driver rolls and rotates in harmony with the car. READ MORE ››-Our first suspicion was a tank of 87 octane. At least, we think that's why the Mustang EcoBoost refused to make any boost. High ambient temps probably didn't help, either. So we burned off the first tank of fuel and started over with a tank of 93 octane.-Lap times improved, but even with the fresh fill, the Mustang still wouldn't give max boost as the 2.3-liter four revved to its 5500-rpm power peak. Without full boost at the power peak, we're thinking that a few of the engine's claimed 310 ponies ended up at the glue factory. After experimenting with our upshift rpm, we determined that the quickest times happened when we shifted just as the boost began to fall. Shifting with the boost gauge instead of the tach is something entirely new to us. READ MORE ››-With the Mini's tires pumped to their recommended high-speed pressures—45 psi in front and 42 out back—the 2862-pound JCW lapped like a dinghy in rough seas. Never mind that the freshly paved outer ring of the Grand West Course is rather smooth; the JCW hopped side to side while running down the straights. It wagged its rear end under braking and overzealously pivoted into turns.-We ultimately pulled 6 psi from each tire (bringing the hot tires down to their recommended cold pressures), and while the JCW still wouldn't follow a straight line at triple-digit speeds, lower pressures softened its bad behavior. The Mini's eagerness to oversteer settled into a more predictable willingness to just turn, a rare but useful trait in a front-drive car. READ MORE ››-The return of the seventh-generation GTI to Lightning Lap is a rare second chance. Last year, the Mark VII GTI only matched the time of the Mark VI, but this year the GTI ran 4.7 seconds quicker. What gives? Well, it's better equipped for the task at hand this time, wearing two doors instead of four and sporting a manual transmission in place of the dual-clutch automatic for a 59-pound weight advantage. More important, though, this year's car included the optional (and unavailable in '14) Perform­ance package with an extra 10 horsepower, for a total of 220. It also has larger brakes and a proper limited-slip differential; all of these additions are significant enough for us to give it another shot.-It's that last piece of hardware that makes the largest impact. Where the open diff lets the car smoke its inside-front tire like so much Bockwurst, the Performance-pack GTI charges out of the slower turns. Thus, the car picks up the bulk of its time on the tightly coiled second half of the Grand West Course. An average speed of 73.3 mph makes the GTI this year's quickest LL1 car through the infield, where it went more than 3 mph faster than last year's model. READ MORE ››--

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