It's been a while between races held at Fuji, not much rubber being laid down. Still a good showing from the LFA. The race cars aren't rev limited at the ring' I don't think, but at Fuji, they were. This years LFA is some 25 seconds faster at the ring' races.

 

haha.....thank you

That's why I don't comment anymore

 

It is really good for entertainment, but the results mean next to nothing except for winner's fan's bragging rights and to diss "Hey GTR costs 1/4th the amount, but it performs better than all the cars".

These are the variables that simply cannot be ignored whatsoever:

1 - GT2 RS had an issue with the 2nd gear synchro.

2 - ZR-1 no way should have been so slow and so far behind all the other cars especially in the corners where it was simply lethargic making me question the surface condition especially for a very high-torque, nose-heavy RWD car with not so sticky tires.

3 - Lexus LFA was barely broken in at 867 km.

4 - All drivers are not equal here. Tsuchiya has a reputation to be on a different level as a driver compared to the rest of them.

5 -Porsche GT2 RS was wearing Michelin Pilot Cup super slick tires and GT-R was wearing GT Max DSST 600 extreme performance tires. Arguably, the two stickiest tires of the bunch.


GT2 RS super-slick tires:



Nissan GTR extreme performance tires with wide super-slick big-block outer shoulders:




LFA's Smaller more flexible outer blocks max performance tires with more grooves and ridges for water channels trading dry traction for better wet traction:

 

Can you honestly say that stickier tires would have made a significant difference on the LFA? The Lexus was getting walked on the straights, unfortunately.

 

LFA passed the GTR on a straight so if anything LFA walked right by the GTR after turn 1.

Even when GTR was directly behind the LFA riding the wind draft in the LFA's wake, it could not pass the LFA on a nearly 1 mile stretch of road. Nor did the Porsche GT2 RS. They went side by side when all cars hit the brakes.

The GTR in third lap was blasting through the turns while LFA was not doing well in the longer sweeping turns. Atleast, that is how I had seen it.

It is also a mystery to me why Kinosheita let off at 9:25 for a solid 15 - 20 seconds and let the GT2 RS catch up. The race was not over and the clock was ticking.

This is how it looked like when the cars hit the braking zone on the 1-mile straight:

 

Tires do make a huge differences in lap times. But the performance differences between the SP Sport 600 and S001 is pretty small. The Pilot Sport cup is on another level being a semi slicks.

Let's see how the Nurburgring edition does with it's stickier tires.

 

Enough of a difference to cut 3s/lap to match the quickest car (GT-R)?

 

Tire rack got a 4.3% faster lap time from the Pilot Cup super-slick tires compared to the PS2 tires (on the same level as S001 tires for LFA). In high-horsepower, RWD cars it makes a bigger difference comparatively speaking than say, an AWD car where torque is continuously split front to back.

Granted DSST GT Maxx tires are one step below in terms of grip, a 2% improvement is very likely with the super-slick shoulders it has and more contact patch.

 

Lexus needs to come up with something to improve its power to weight ratio disadvantage in high speed runs. I hope they are watching these video ...

 

Yes. I think I posted in the general LFA thread before that some drivers at Spring Mountain once told me their race compound tires easily cut 3-4s per lap even on the shorter 2.2mi configuration.

Given that many people take telemetry of their laps at various "country club"-style tracks around the country, it'd be interesting to gather some data how much the racing tires shave off lap times especially taking into account different dynamic features of the tracks.

 

It would be a clear win if 3s/lap is gained for the LFA. Take a look the best lap times as bench marks

 

Thanks for the response corrola.

I hope they at least become aware of it.

That's HUGE!

I was going after the time attack lap times, but 3s would have been a win for the LFA. Anyways, all I want is the LFA to obliterate the GT-R.

 

Ha ha, that would be the equivalent of man beats IBM supercomputers in chess.

 

Dunno. Despite all the AWD trick computer wizardry, if many other RWD much better balanced, lighter exotic cars in the right hands can be faster than the GTR, I don't see a reason why LFA should not be.

 

It would be hard to get that perfect matchup. I think this is where most of the comparisons are made.