Some benchmark testing

Just finished some benchmark testing of the two car classes, with some interesting results.
The testing was done on Nürburgring 24 h layout, simply because it's a track with a lot of variation and the length of it makes it easier to see differences in performance of the various cars. More on this after the break.


Four cars were tested, two from each class. The regulations for class A is 400 hp / 1100 kg, while class B is 200 hp / 1000 kg (or rather 995 kg, to allow the Mazda Roadster TC to enter as well).

The cars I tested were selected because were very different from each other. The A class cars were the Chevrolet Corvette RM against the Lexus IS F RM, while the B class cars were the Honda Integra RM against the Toyota Prius TC.

In the A class, the Chevrolet Corvette did a 8.44 lap. Only one lap was necessary as it was good enough for rock 'n' roll. The Lexus IS F had a nasty crash on its first lap (it took some time to get used to the handling after driving the Corvette), so it had to get a second lap. The second lap was 8.41, three seconds faster than the Corvette. Now, the conclusion I draw from this is that the cars, despite that they are very different (a big sedan againt a low sports coupé), are very equal in performance. The three second difference can be explained by the fact that I had two laps with the Lexus and thus knew the car better on the second lap. Another conclusion is that the Lexus is the car for anyone who likes shifting, because it got 8 gears! Insanse when braking from a fast straight, there's a lot of shifting down...

In the B class, I started off with the Honda Integra. It did a 9.46, pretty much a minute slower than the A class cars. The Toyota Prius was an interesting ride. I've driven it a couple of times before, so the fact that the car only got one gear and that the RPM is at full most of the time wasn't as big a chock as it was the very first time I tried it. Now, what it does is that it forces you to change the way you drive completely: you can no longer judge the speed by what gear you're in, which makes breaking for corners rather difficult. And when you accelerate it doesn't feel like the car is doing that very fast. I thought that the Prius lap would be awfully slow, but as I reached the finish line I was proven wrong, the car did a 9.24 on the first lap, 20 seconds faster than the Honda Integra! Now, the Prius is special in the way that it got an electric engine and a gasoline engine. When the electric engine is charged, it will produce an awful lot of power, but when it's out of energy some power from the gasoline engine will be used to charge the batteries, reducing the power transferred to the wheels. So to test the effects of this, the Prius had to make two laps around the ring instead of just one.

The first lap had been completed with the batteries fully charged, while about 1/4th into the second lap, the batteries were out and the charging begun. I noticed an instant drop in power while the charging lasted, and lost several seconds to the ghost car. Now, the charging didn't go on until the batteries were all full again, once it reached 2 bars the charging stopped and the battery kicked in again, returning the car to it's former glory. The battery ran out again about 1/2 and 3/4 into the second lap, so there was a total of three periods of chargin. This gave a time for the second lap of 9.40, a lot slower than the first lap, but interesting enough faster than the Integra by 6 seconds! Again, those 6 seconds might be explained by the fact that I had two laps in the Prius and only one in the Integra, so it seems that even between a hybrid like the Prius and a non-hybrid like the Integra, it's still a close race! The Prius (and probably the CR-Z TC as well) will have an edge in the first laps, but then it will be a close race. And as the Prius is harder to drive than the Integra, we might have some close battles in the B class group.