| Re: How about some lap times
I can really only give you Goodwood times.
This is a 2.4 mile circuit around an airfield and is the only GP circuit in the world that still runs in an unchanged layout from day one. ie 1948 ish
I can also only tell you what GTD's do as very rarely do other makes venture onto the track and go for times. Stand to be corrected of course!
A standard GTD (if there is a such a thing)should be in the low 1 min 40's, say up to 1 min 45 secs. Anything under 1 min 40 is a good time.
Start to upgrade engine and brakes then 1 min 35 to 1 min 40 is a reasonable expectation.
Below 1 min 35 is acheivable with good tyres and driver.
For the competition boys who play at Goodowod regularly (and that counts for a lot) sub 1 min 35 should be the norm.
The absolute best times are sub 1 min 30 secs. You need good track conditions as well as good driving now and a well set up car etc etc.
Records for flying laps are hard to define as no event time flying laps officially so these next figures may whiff a little of BS but are genrally considered acceptable. 1 min 27s have been claimed by myself and Robin Batt. Both Paul and Dave have also been under 1 min 30 too but I cannot remember what was claimed. Paul runs telemetry so when he says it, it is liklely to truthful as he is not full of BS!
The only official times come from standing starts at sprints. As a club we aim to go below 1 min 35 if conditions are good. 1 min 33 is likely to win you the best placed club member. The record is held by myself at 1 min 31 timed by Aston Martin Owners Club, when I ran new slicks and everything was perfect except the driver who forgot to change down from fifth to fourth at no name corner, the one before St Mary's. I had a choice of crash or turn in and hope I make it. I choose the latter course of action and somehow stayed on the road. Seriously crapped my pants. Snag is I did it once so should be able to do it again! No thanks.
General rule of thumb is that a flying lap will be 4 to 5 secs slower than a standing start lap.
Goodwood lap record is something like 1 min 5 secs! Robin has lapped at 1 min 23 in the factory prepped TVR tuscan racer but got pulled off before he went faster than the paid factory works driver!
Metro 6R4 has done about 1 min 30. Tony Marsh has done 1 min 20 (I think) in his 1980 Roman F1 car. Stirling Moss used to do 1 min 40's in the 1950's in his coopers etc (again, I think).
Whilst ford used to test here, there are no records of lap times of what the origanls did.
The only event where a real 40 competed and a replica has subsequently competed that I know of is at the Brighton Speed trials. Adrian Hamilton ran his 40 in 1968 (?) over the half mile at 23 secs. In the early 1990's before the course was shortened to 1/4 mile, GTDs were capable of sub 20 secs. My best half mile is 21 secs. However Hamilton's forty was not a full blown race car so what if......
Wendy's lotus has done a 1 min 33 at Goodwood with a 1.6 litre cortina engine in a 1968 chassis on 5 inch wide tyres. But only weighs 400 kg. So moral is lost weight is more time saving than excessive bhp!
Malcolm | 
Linear Mode
