[CUT 7]

apprapo of nothing on this thread and thus off topic but ...
I posted this on 'fastest laps .com ' to more or less zero response.And no data to disprove the theory.
But I thought it was interesting so here goes.
I do understand this is a grown up site and the post is a bit childish but heh..

This waffle was first enflamed by an article I read comparing Mac Hulberts 1933 ERA, a 1966 Brabham F 1(i think) and a Porsche 911 GT3 road car round a race track. Might have been in 'Evo'?
So supercars. Are they that fast?
My thesis is that they're not.
We can compare lap times with racing cars on circuits that are still used or have not changed over time..
Lets use Goodwood a circuit thats still used to race on, in the same layout as the lap times for road cars.

Also Goodwood stipulate, and this is usefull for us, that the cars that race there have to use 'in era' rubber compounds.(!!)So the times there are not using super sticky modern racing rubber.

I'd very much appreciate info on other circuits that are the same for road and race cars both in the UK and elsewhere.

So some data.
Fastest road car at Goodwood is 1.27.7 - Nissan GTR
At Top gears track its 2 ish secs off the fastest -Gumpert.

So lets say the Gumpert is 3 secs quicker at goodwood thats 1.24.7.
Now a quick look on Goodwoods site is very revieling to how slow that is.
Its barely a second quicker that the narrow tyred Listers of 1958 - 1,26.
Or the D Type Jags , some have managed into 1.27's.
Or the quickest Cobras, GTO's and LT /WT E - Types the GT 1 of 45 years ago. They can get into the 1.26,s.

Around Clarksons track we can guess they would be lapping at roughly 1.18.7, thats Veyron fast.
And these are only the closed wheel cars.

Opened wheeled and its even more startling.
ERA's lap in the 1.30.0's.
Or the Ferrarri Dinos (and Maser 250F's) of the 50's at 1.24.
Front engined, 6 pots, less then 7" rims ,55 years old
So for a million quid we can buy a Veyron and go round Goodwood at the same speed as a 1950's F1 car or a bit quicker than a front engined GT from the 60's....
Or the same speed - more or less - as a rear engined GT of post 66, GT40 (Ferrari P4 etc) at 1.25.00.
So thats how quick or slow supercars are, in track terms.

A bit of extrapolation.
Ferrari ran Daytonas (365 GTB) at Le Mans in the 70's.They finished 4th.
Presumably they were quicker than the 60's Ferrari & Jag GTs.
So if they were only say a second a lap quicker round Goodwood that puts them into Gumpert teriitory, 1.25.0's

Another of my thoeries is that as soon as you put an engine in the back of a racing car its impossable to replicate that performance in a road car.
Hence why all the post 1961 F1 & post 67 sports protypes would completley trounce any supercar round a track.

Supercars have to be set up for slow speed work. Thats what most road driving is after all.
The clever bit about todays supercars is that they can go slowly, and give the buyer a useable, safe , farely comfortable fascimile of race car speeds.
Fools like me who cant drive well, have to be able to negotiate them to our track days , thrash them whilst we think we're Schumacker, not write them off and still be able to talk to the impressed lady friend on the way back home.

But realy quick they're not.
One explanation maybe race rubber, even if its not of the modern era.
Or role cage chassis stifness?
One more thing
brighton speed trials 2008.
Gumpert - 2008 supercar - 12.01.
(His excuse for not doing a ten, what he thought it could do ? "..erm it bogged down mate....")

E R A - 1933 race car - 12.01
(driven by brilliant Mac Hulbert) .

And a question tat has nothing to do with the above.
after the war why didnt the single seater fraturity replicated the autp unions success of putting the engine at the back?Why did they wait till Mr Cooper? Was it engine size regs that made it untenable? Or


Hope this wasnt too boring.
thanks for your patience.
cheers