@ Viking: Yeah, it was slow, but reliable, and agile for a minivan, my grandma had it for over 20 years, it outlived her.
Lotus Evora S lap time at Hockenheim Short
Track | Hockenheim Short |
Type | flying start |
Vehicle | Lotus Evora S |
Power / weight | 351 ps / 1439 kg |
Driver | Christian Gebhardt |
Time | 1:13.000 |
Average speed | 130 kph (81 mph) |
Notes | Lotus Evora S IPS (2012) |
Submitted | 11 years ago by anonymous |
Views | 2.7k |
Reference: http://youtu.be/vM6CkG_TzbA
Viking 11y ago
I don't want to bash Christian Gebhardt too much, but I don't think he has the skills necessary to get good lap times with mid-engine rear drive cars. He is much smoother, and clearly more comfortable driving front wheel drive cars as seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2xVePLE3ms
Viking 11y ago
@Shaggy
I am getting better with the Spyder, but I haven't driven it in competition (yet). I think mid-engined cars require more skill, but of course when driven well they will get the best lap times. Front wheel drive cars are easy since if it gets a bit sideways on corner entry while trail braking, you just add throttle to get instant understeer (despite that trait, I did spin the Neon ACR a few times in competition). Front engine rear drive cars like Corvettes (or Mustangs) are a bit more difficult, but fairly easy to catch when slip angles get too high. Mid-engine rear drive cars have higher trail braking limits, and better grip on corner exit, and those traits give better lap times. However, the centralized weight makes for faster responses/instability (read twitchy handling). Higher skills, smooth inputs, and quick reactions are required to get the most out of mid-engine rear drive cars. Sloppy driving will get slow times.
Viking 11y ago
@Shaggy yeah kinda. There are two ways of taking corners at (or slightly beyond) the limit: overdrive it by going in too fast, and exit too hard and be quick with countersteer and other steering inputs (called sawing at the wheel); and the other method is to modulate the brakes and throttle better so that the car needs less steering input. If the car has little steering feel, gives mixed messages, or is just difficult to drive: you might wind up sawing at the wheel anyway. Given that this was a Lotus, I would expect good handling behavior with decent steering feel. So I think Gebhardt was losing time by overdriving it. I found that my best lap times were a bit smoother, with a little less slip angle than that. I don't think a Lotus requires the kind of manhandling he was using. I haven't driven an Evora S, but I do drive a mid-engined rear drive car (with a Toyota engine) so while I am not entirely sure, I do think that I would beat his lap time with that car.
Viking 11y ago
interesting video, I don't think Christian Gebhardt is all that good of a driver though. Too much steering correction, he should have better throttle control. He is as bad as I was in my first year of competition. I am much better than he is now. I got much better during my 10 years of competition, and I would say even though it has been 8 years since my last season with the SCCA, I am definitely still more skilled than he is based on that video.