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Car and Driver Lightning Lap 2007 |
When the editors of CAR AND DRIVER magazine set out to establish a new US benchmark for overall sportscar performance they had a problem.
The Nürburgring, a legendary track near Cologne, Germany is widely considered to be the world's most demanding testing track due to its length and an exhaustive mix of elevations, turns and straights. As such it has become the de facto choice for benchmarking with Porsche, Audi, BMW and others. The problem was that the Nürburgring is some 5000 miles away from the CAR AND DRIVER headquarters in Ann Arbor.
So how could they replace such an iconic and exceptional roadcourse? All it took was a trip to VIRginia International Raceway. Here is some of what the CAR AND DRIVER editors had to say about VIR:
"It's really pretty selfish. We've setup a private track day here at America's best track with 13 of the fastest cars so that we can go out and race around for the better part of 8 hours. But in the process we're testing the ultimate performance of these cars at a very very challenging racetrack".
Csaba Csere - Editor-In-Chief CAR AND DRIVER
"(It's a) terrific circuit, ...I think it is easily the best circuit in the States.."
Mark Gillies - Executive Editor CAR AND DRIVER
"The Grand Circuit that we ran at VIR really had a little bit of everything. It has a combination of the fast stuff that really scares you a little bit, and some of the slower blind turns that require a lot more brainpower than you might think".
Csaba Csere - Editor-In-Chief CAR AND DRIVER
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