Quote:
Originally Posted by eolson
The Bos 302 LS has as good or a better lap time around curvy handling tracks then the Ford GT did, and it has better lateral G's too, although the Boss lacks the acceleration and top speed of the Ford GT, the 2013 GT500 doesn't lack those factors, with the combo of a better lateral G suspension, and traction control, I have no doubt the 2013 GT500 can obtain a better Nurburgring time than the Ford GT did. Erik
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I'm going to borrow a line from BigDan and chalk that up to mostly the tires. Especially on the Laguna Seca editions as they come with R compound tires. So if you were to throw those tires on a GT500, and add the internal cross brace the LS has on a GT500 I might agree.
Admittedly, I don't have the specs, designs, or calculations in front of me, but the Ford GT chassis is pretty amazing. To me the GT500 is still on an S197 chassis at the end of the day despite updates. The Ford GT has a lower center of gravity than the S197s chassis, I'm positive the Ford GT has a better polar moment of inertia simply because it is mid-engined, the Ford GT is lighter, etc. I can't imagine that spring rates, brakes, and stabilizer bars on the 2013 GT500 are superior to the Ford GT either. Or at the very least they aren't superior enough to counter all the advantages of a Ford GT.
I didn't point it out well enough, but those Ford GT runs on the ring were also done by magazines, not the actual companies trying to run a best time as is the trend these days. The Ford GT I'm sure has a lot of room left on the table if some pro driver seriously wanted to take a stock version back to the ring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigDan
Tire technology has improved by leaps and bounds in the past 9 year since the FGT came out. Put a set of ZO7 tires on a FGT and you will see it shave 10+ seconds a lap.
Same could be said for the 2013 GT500, swap out its F1 G2's for a 10 year old tire and watch it loose 10+ seconds.
You cant really compare older cars on the list to newer ones due to the simple fact that all the new tests were performed on the latest and greatest set of tires.
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I agree and that was kind of the direction I tried to head in my post. Not so much because of tires specifically, which is valid, just in general. Whether it was tires/compounds or just pure focus on extracting the best possible time out of a car with the most proficient driver a company can muster; I was really illuminating how one car that is superior to another IMHO, could be unfairly judged as slower, and that blind quoting of ring times or speculation can be misleading.
That said, short of what tires are run, I'm still not convinced a '13 GT500 is faster than a '05-'06 Ford GT, so I'm skeptical of the rumored 7:32. If it does run a 7:32 then I'm inclined to believe that a Ford GT could potentially do better if the effort was made. That is all really.