No, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca hasn’t been widened and stripped into a 12-lane road (thank goodness). But it’s fun to look at each 2017 Best Driver’s Car contender’s single best lap as if it were a simultaneous slot car race. So—via the prodigious application of some rusty high school trigonometry—voilà! Slot Car Seca:
As you can see, matters quickly unravel into a blow-out gap between the first-place Ferrari 488 GTB and last-finishing Mazda Miata. Eventually, it grows so huge that we’ve had to limit the number of position snapshots (where they are located every several seconds) to just the five intervals shown here; when the Ferrari finishes, the Mazda is still way, way back, tire squealing its way through Turn 10. But between these bookends there were notable skirmishes, beginning with the AMG GT R and Porsche 911 Turbo S, which are nearly neck and neck the whole way until the end, where the big Merc holds off its German rival with its predictable burst of brute acceleration. And behind them is another—and startlingly unlikely—wrestling match between the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE and the McLaren 570GT. The grippy Chevrolet wins that one, but the Nissan GT-R NISMO trailing both of them tries very hard to ruin the McLaren’s day at the checkered flag.
As you peruse your way around the data boxes, you’ll eventually come to two that describe the climb up the hill to the Corkscrew (Turns 8 and 8a) and then another that characterizes the diving, twisting descent through the iconic, snaking segment. Here, we’re looking at their performance as each car’s peak rate of vertical ascent and drop (in mph). People often talk of “falling through the corkscrew.” Well, this is the speed of that fall (and climb up to it in the first place).
Read more about 2017 Best Driver’s Car contenders:
- Ferrari 488 GTB
- Porsche 911 Turbo S
- Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE
- Porsche 718 Cayman S
- Lexus LC 500
- Mercedes-AMG GT R
- Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio
- Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport
- Aston Martin DB11
- Nissan GT-R NISMO
- Mazda MX-5 Miata RF
- McLaren 570GT
The post Best Driver’s Lap: Slot Car Seca appeared first on Motor Trend.
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