Yahoo Autos Fastest Sedans in Lightning Lap History
- 1/31
Fastest Sedans in Lightning Lap History
A fast four-door is something special—and secretive. Even the burliest, muscled-up sedans can slip under the radar of most fellow commuters, who see a family-oriented grocery-getter, not a track weapon. Yet there are a plethora of sedans that can throw down on a racing circuit, as our annual Lightning Lap shootout proves. We’ve run piles of four-door sedans at Virginia International Raceway—where we head each year with the hottest performance cars, in order to extract their quickest lap—and here we present the 15 quickest so far.
Car and Driver - 2/31
2009 Cadillac CTS-V — 03:04.0
If the Corvette was predictable as the LL2 champ this year, the car that put up the second-best lap time in the category was a surprise. Yes, the CTS-V’s 6.2-liter supercharged LSA V-8 made 556 horsepower, 120 more than the Vette, and, yes, horsepower definitely counts on this circuit.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 3/31
2009 Cadillac CTS-V — 03:04.0
- Lightning Lap 2008
- Lap Time: 03:04.0
- Horsepower: 556 hp
- Weight: 4269 lb
Rich Chenet - Car and Driver - 4/31
2017 Audi S8 Plus — 3:03.6
Of all the dynamic secrets Lightning Lap reveals, this one ranks as the year’s most unexpected: The Audi S8 Plus, despite wearing equal-width front and rear tires and carrying 56.5 percent of its 4634 pounds on the front axle, is not a stubborn understeering mule. In lapping VIR with such improbable agility and excitability, the S8 challenged our fundamental understanding of the world we live in. If the largest Audi car pivots rather than plows, how can we be sure that the Florida Man of all those idiot-crime headlines isn’t actually a Rhodes scholar?
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 5/31
2017 Audi S8 Plus — 3:03.6
- Lightning Lap 2017
- Lap Time: 3:03.6
- Horsepower: 605 hp
- Weight: 4634 lb
Andi Hedrick - Car and Driver - 6/31
2014 Audi RS7 — 3:03.0
Sharknado, a cautionary tale about removing predators from their natural environment, is an apt metaphor for the Audi RS7. This 560-hp luxury bullet, so buffed and menacing, so unquestionably the top of the boulevard food chain, becomes a messy B-movie horror show on a track. We thought of nothing but escape, but cooler heads prevented us from using a chain saw to cut ourselves out of it.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 7/31
2014 Audi RS7 — 3:03.0
- Lightning Lap 2014
- Lap Time: 3:03.0
- Horsepower: 560 hp
- Weight: 4442 lb
Michael Simari - Car and Driver - 8/31
2012 Porsche Panamera Turbo S — 03:00.7
We’ve clocked the regular Turbo version of Dr. Seuss’s Porsche at 3.3 seconds to 60 mph, so we know it is absurdly quick for its size. But who could have guessed that this new Turbo S version could outrun a 911 GT3 and equal the 3:00.7 lap time of the Ford GT on a racecourse as demanding as VIR?
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 9/31
2012 Porsche Panamera Turbo S — 03:00.7
- Lightning Lap 2012
- Lap Time: 03:00.7
- Horsepower: 550 hp
- Weight: 4434 lb
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 10/31
2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S-model — 03:00.1
The Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S-model feels a lot like a nuclear-powered king-size water bed—probably. Soft, comfortable, and fun to jump on, the E63 has a 577-hp reactor under the hood that dials up sweat-inducing speeds with ease, but its four-wheel-drive chassis sloshes around whenever you change direction. Still, it turned a stunning 3:00.1 lap, 6.8 seconds quicker than the 518-hp, rear-drive E63 we tested back in 2011.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 11/31
2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S-model — 03:00.1
- Lightning Lap 2014
- Lap Time: 03:00.1
- Horsepower: 577 hp
- Weight: 4400 lb
Michael Simari - Car and Driver - 12/31
2016 Cadillac ATS-V — 02:59.8
There are moments on the track when you’d swear that GM just went out and hired half the Le Mans grid for its development team. Really, the ATS-V sedan’s chassis is that good. After rumbling out of the pits, you’ve got at least three solid laps of peak performance to extract your time. That may not sound like very many, but we’ve seen cars of much higher pedigree go soft after a lap or two. The Cadillac’s tires and brakes—especially the brakes, those wonderful, unbreakable brakes—soak up the abuse with a shrug and keep going.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 13/31
2016 Cadillac ATS-V — 02:59.8
- Lightning Lap 2015
- Lap Time: 02:59.8
- Horsepower: 464 hp
- Weight: 3809 lb
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 14/31
2017 Porsche Panamera Turbo — 02:59.2
Like the last Panamera we lapped at VIR, a first-gen Turbo S, this gen-two Turbo packs a 550-hp twin-turbo V-8. But the new car carries 229 more pounds than its predecessor. More weight with no additional power isn’t typically a recipe for improved lap times.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 15/31
2017 Porsche Panamera Turbo — 02:59.2
- Lightning Lap 2017
- Lap Time: 2:59.2
- Horsepower: 550 hp
- Weight: 4663 lb
Michae Simari - Car and Driver - 16/31
2015 Mercedes-AMG C63 S-model — 02:59.2
For the past few years, Mercedes has sent along a man, Karl-Heinz Seitter, to mind its cars at Lightning Lap. He’s also become a kind of Mercedes-Benz team manager, gently prodding our drivers to do better. Tell him you got a 3:02 and he’ll ask you if three-flat is possible. Get the three-flat and he’ll have you chasing 2:59. We love Karl-Heinz; it’s like having the great, globular Rennleiter Alfred Neubauer along, but without the gray serge and fedora.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 17/31
2015 Mercedes-AMG C63 S-model — 02:59.2
- Lightning Lap 2015
- Lap Time: 02:59.2
- Horsepower: 503 hp
- Weight: 3949 lb
Michael Simari - Car and Driver - 18/31
2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio — 2:58.6
There are few cars that, at first sight, inspire the emotional response the Giulia does. Unfortunately, aesthetics matter not one bit at Lightning Lap. Instead, performance and reliability are paramount. And reliability has been something of an issue for Alfa. While a new one hasn’t yet stranded us, every Giulia we’ve driven outside of a press event has been finicky.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 19/31
2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio — 2:58.6
- Lightning Lap 2017
- Lap Time: 2:58.6
- Horsepower: 505 hp
- Weight: 3753 lb
Andi Hedrick - Car and Driver - 20/31
2018 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio — 2:57.2
We fell in love with the Giulias cornering and immediate power delivery all over again this year at VIR. But love sometimes carries heartbreak. We'd list all the warnings and yellow lights that warmed our knuckles during our laps, but we'll save you the thumb-energy of scrolling here. We ignored such warnings until problems became so serious we had no choice but to acknowledge them. That didn't stop us from beating our last Giulia's time by 1.4-seconds.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 21/31
2018 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio — 2:57.2
- Lightning Lap 2019
- Lap Time: 2:57.2
- Horsepower: 505 hp
- Weight: 3793 lb
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 22/31
2016 Cadillac CTS-V — 02:56.8
Some things, while physically possible, just shouldn’t be done. For example: flushing a public toilet with anything other than your shoe, driving a cargo van to pick up your prom date, or drinking a Skinnygirl Margarita at a football tailgate. You can add lapping a 4114-pound sedan at VIR in 2:56.8 to the list. Big sedans aren’t supposed to corner this fast; inhaling highway without compressing spinal discs over bumps is their prime directive. Yet GM’s ultrasedan does it all, sticking an all-American pin into the balloon of German dominance in this genre.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 23/31
2016 Cadillac CTS-V — 02:56.8
- Lightning Lap 2015
- Lap Time: 02:56.8
- Horsepower: 640 hp
- Weight: 4114 lb
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 24/31
2018 Mercedes-AMG E63 S — 2:55.4
The E63 S’s success on track starts with a long-established Affalterbach tactic: Cram the sedan’s engine bay with as much horsepower as you can. This 603-hp 4.0-liter is more powerful than even AMG’s track-beast GT R sports car (keep reading), and it propels this altered E-class to 154.8 mph on the front straight.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 25/31
2018 Mercedes-AMG E63 S — 2:55.4
- Lightning Lap 2017
- Lap Time: 2:55.4
- Horsepower: 603 hp
- Weight: 4602 lb
Michael Simari - Car and Driver - 26/31
2018 BMW M5 — 2:55.2
BMW’s F90 M5 was the quickest sedan we’ve ever run at Lightning Lap for 2018. But just barely. Its 0.2-second margin over the previous quickest, the Mercedes-AMG E63 S 4MATIC, makes the four-door contest within the top-five a close fight. It’s not surprising that their armaments and tactics are similar.
Michael Simari - Car and Driver - 27/31
2018 BMW M5 — 2:55.2
- Lightning Lap 2018
- Lap Time: 2:55.2
- Horsepower: 600 hp
- Weight: 4293 lb
Michael Simari - Car and Driver - 28/31
2019 BMW M5 Competition — 2:54.0
It might've only been king of the four-door performance cars for a year, but since then, it hasn't just been sitting around eating premium gas and tires in the off season. The M5 Competition has a new twin-turbo engine that gets a 17-hp advantage over the previous, returned suspension, and other minor improvements that keep the rubber boots on this all-wheel-drive monster kicking.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 29/31
2019 BMW M5 Competition — 2:54.0
- Lightning Lap 2019
- Lap Time: 2:54.0
- Horsepower: 617 hp
- Weight: 4241 lb
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 30/31
2019 Mercedes-AMG GT63 S 4Matic — 2:49.3
Winning by nearly five seconds is pretty definite. Not even coupes are safe as the GT63 S was able to hit a higher top speed from Hog Pen to the front stretch than Camaro ZL1 1LE and the 911 GT3 RS. Its 630-hp 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 under the GT63 S is serious business. It might cost over $200k, but that's the price you'll pay for a car this big to go this fast around VIR.
Marc Urbano - Car and Driver - 31/31
2019 Mercedes-AMG GT63 S 4Matic — 2:49.3
- Lightning Lap 2019
- Lap Time: 2:49.3
- Horsepower: 630 hp
- Weight: 4628 lb
Michael Simari - Car and Driver
Among the hundreds of vehicles Car and Driver has hot-lapped at Virginia International Raceway, these are the quickest with four doors.
