The longer we keep getting better and better lap times, the smaller the time diffence gets. When it's a competition of shaving off fractions of a second, every gear change, every corner exit speed, every braking distance, every bit of grip matters. If you spin off, the lap is done. At worst you just waste two minutes and have another go, while hopefully learning something from the cause of the spin.
Since it seems it's just the three of us (Al, Wobbly, Taz), I think we should definitely have a hypercar challenge with the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918. The cars should be approximately as powerful and similar in most ways. The idea is that we each pick one car and then compete against the other two with it. As a Porsche fan and maybe as the sole Porsche DLC owner I know my pick.
What do you guys think? Of course we will have the current Nissan GT-R challenge going on for the rest of the month, but what about after that?
I believe it would be interesting to have the competitors champion different cars, but think it would be a much better comparison of skill to have the participants use the exact same car and track.
Different cars have different handling charistics and require a different driving style. One of the reasons I did so well with the Corvette on Nurburg. Not only do I know the track well but I also spend a lot of time in racing simulators with high powered rear wheel drive race preped vehicles. If the vehicles are closley matched in power to weight ratio and g-force achieved on the skid pad it comes down to what you are more comfortable driving.
Darn, Wobbly has beaten by a bit over 0,5 seconds! Let's see what I can do about it...
As for the hypercar challenge, I think Monza or Spa Francorchamps would be good.
I've seen the first two episodes of The Grand Tour. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a car show made by Clarkson, May and Hammond. It's basically Top Gear but slightly different. For example, this time the racing driver isn't unidentifiable nor mute; it's the American NASCAR driver Mike Skinner. I'll surely watch the rest of the series if it's as good as the first episodes.