Lightning Lap 2017: 19 New Performance Cars Attack America's Most Grueling Racetrack!

K.C. COLWELL, JOSH JACQUOT, TONY QUIROGA, AARON ROBINSON, ERIC TINGWALL

September 5, 2017 at 10:00 AM

We never meant it literally. When we named our annual performance-car torture test Lightning Lap more than a decade ago, we meant it in a figurative sense. Fast like lightning, get it? That Lightning Lap is also alliterative is a source of amusement and at least a bit of embarrassment. This year, though, the 11th time we’ve visited America’s most demanding road course, Virginia International Raceway, we were in some danger of actually being hit by lightning of the 1 billion-volts variety, which is not at all amusing. Still, tires needed to be destroyed. Nerves needed singeing. We would not be swayed from our course. At least not until after the track dried.

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For a few days every year, Car and Driver turns the best American road course into our southern White House. We drive from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Alton, Virginia, in a platoon of editors, photographers, videographers, and assistants and set up shop at Virginia International Raceway (VIR). We spend the prior four months procuring the hottest new cars and making sure we have all the timing gear, helmets, water, food, and adult beverages we could possibly need. We then give ourselves three days to distill every car on hand into a single number: a lap time of VIR’s 4.1-mile Grand West Course.

To lap VIR quickly, a car must be able to expertly navigate every kind of corner imaginable. Fast sweepers and tight hairpins, inclines and declines, and one terrifying off-camber and downhill left (Turn 10). This is our benchmark test of what a car can really accomplish, because as much as zero-to-60-mph times, braking distances, and maximum lateral acceleration can tell you about a car, a great racetrack shows you how all those things come together. You will not find a more challenging track of this length in the U.S., which is why we selected VIR in the first place. It’s hard on brakes and tires and is exhausting for drivers. VIR is such a good test of a vehicle’s ability that General Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler’s SRT team rent it to develop their newest and most incendiary machinery.

For 10 years, we dodged inclement weather, mostly. But this time, for Lightning Lap No. 11, the heavens would dump their ballast on VIR for two and a half of the three days we had booked. All the planning in the world can’t account for Mother Nature. The ebb and flow of cold and warm fronts are predicted weekly. But storm forecasts six months to a year out, which is how far in advance we have to book the track, are limited to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Here’s a demoralizing scene: A group of crestfallen enthusiasts sitting in a rented paddock with 19 of the best new performance cars tucked away in garages, silent. You could practically hear the money spent on track rental washing down the storm drains. We tested the waters, so to speak, on Grand West in the wonderful new Honda Civic Si, the updated Subaru WRX fitted with the Performance package, and even Porsche’s four-cylinder 718 Cayman S. But dedicated track monsters such as the Mercedes-AMG GT R, the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, the Nissan GT-R Track Edition, and the gorgeous Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio sat still. As soon as a dry line would begin to form, it started raining again. The best week ever had turned into the worst.

This downtime did allow us to ponder why two of the most anticipated new cars weren’t present: the Ford GT and the Lamborghini Huracán Performante. Lambo had a decent excuse, as it was launching the car in Europe and had no examples in the States. Ford, on the other hand, offered no justification. Sitting around thinking about it while the rain fell only made us angrier; then sadder, because we still couldn’t lap anything; then even angrier over the weather. It’s a vicious cycle. We might get the GT at VIR one day, we might not.

Luckily, the track had a cancellation and the following week opened up, just as the skies had done before. So we packed up, left, regrouped, and returned 72 hours later.

As in years past, we grouped cars by price (sub-$35,000 LL1 through $125,000-to-$249,999 LL4—no $250K-plus LL5 cars showed up). Base prices include performance-enhancing options such as brake, tire, and chassis upgrades because we believe that a $30,000 car with $10K in options that make it go faster should be compared with other $40,000 cars. We also invited four large sedans to lap, but one, the Mercedes-AMG S63, wasn’t available, so our LLTransporter class rendered three: Audi S8 Plus, BMW Alpina B7, and BMW M760i. They weren’t as slow or out of place on a track as you might think.

Equipped with Racelogic GPS–based data loggers on the dashes, helmets on heads, and GoPros stuck to the cars, our five editors attacked VIR on Monday the way we’d planned to the week before. Finally, the weather was good. The cars were better.

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Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

Audi S8 Plus

BMW M240i

BMW M760i

BMW Alpina B7

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE

Fiat 124 Spider Abarth

Honda Civic Si

Lexus LC500

Mercedes-AMG E63 S

Mercedes-AMG GT R

Mini Clubman JCW ALL4

Nissan GT-R Track Edition

Porsche 718 Cayman S

Porsche 911 Turbo S

Porsche Panamera Turbo

Subaru BRZ Performance

Subaru WRX Performance

Lightning Lap Extras

2017 Lap Times and Data

2006–2017 Historical Lap Times

Fastest Sedans in LL History

LL Legends: Camaro vs. Mustang!

LL Legends: Corvette vs. 911!

Previous Events

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Lightning Lap Extras

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