How Nürburgring Lap Times Have Become Irrelevant

Once upon a time the famed Nürburgring was a great evaluator of vehicle performance as a quick internet search would easily settle an argument between fanboys over which supercar could lap "Green Hell" the quickest. Over the past decade a sizable internet database of 'Ring time developed with help from a few European publications with Sport Auto and its editor Horst von Saurma doing the heavy lifting. Not wanting to miss out on all of the fun a couple of manufacturers decided to begin publishing (and even providing video evidence) of their own lap times and in the process essentially destroying the Nürburgring's reputation as a performance benchmark.
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TehShibbs - 5/22/2012 1:40:57 PM

+1 Boost

Same driver? That's just ridiculous. Some drivers favor understeer, some favor oversteer. Some favor FWD, some RWD, and others AWD.

chewy - 5/22/2012 4:37:30 PM

+1 Boost

It's hard to have a benchmark that way. This was the whole idea behind the Stig at Top Gear, to have one driver do all of the laps. Of course that's quite hard logistically hence the hidden identity.