Audi R8 V10 Plus lap time at Laguna Seca (post 1988)

If i take a stop watch and time the lap it does not give me anything close to 1:34.2
Try it yourself, you get 1:35.0 give or take a tenth for reaction time.
Checked a few of the other fast cars of the Best drivers car of 2016 (amg gts, viper acr, mclaren 570s, m4 gts) and the times seem to align far better within a tenth or at most 2 tenths.
In fact on the video the stopwatch is slower than a real life stopwatch by about a second/min.

What do we think? harmless mistake on motortrends part? Hidden agenda to make the audi appear faster than the competition? Faulty equipment? Would like to know if anyone else has come across this sort of thing before...

Yep, my stopwatch overtook the stopwatch in this video, despite starting a little late so you are correct about it being slower. It is hard to speculate as to why this is, how are they implementing the stopwatch, surely they have one inside the car right (that is timing it in in real time - a performance testing device)? Maybe they have added a computerized stopwatch that is slower yet matches the real time they got, to sync with the edited footage in there.

If that was the case then surely the other times would have the same issue, and yet they dont.

Well, it could be the editing group doing something weird or had someone new on-board that messed something up? If this is the only occurrence I wouldn't worry about it. I believe 570S was MotorTrend's 2016 Best Driver's Car so even if it was quicker than the 570S around the track it still lost when other factors were factored in.

Yeah i guess, its precisely BECAUSE it never happened before that im hedged between faulty equipment/bad editing or agenda to make the audi look better.
I have noticed that the sound lines up perfectly with the video (rumble strips, acceleration/deceleration) which would make me think that maybe the video + audio is slowed down. BUT if that is the case why is the stopwatch also slower than real life? Peculiar indeed.
This is why we always appreciate UNCUT video for laptimes even if all the angles used on motortrend are cool and good for the entertainment value

To be fair, I have no doubt the car can do that time because they specifically said they used the trofeos on this lap. On top gear they were also able to produce a 1:15 lap, so it’s gonna be fast, though still quite a bit slower than the Performante

Oh i dont doubt it either. But this is the “sub seven” ring laptime for the P1 debacle all over again. If they have the actual lap then why not show it with proper footage and the correct stopwatch.
It just seems very convenient that it happens to leap frog the 570s

Maybe it was a simple screw up where the video was recorded in the wrong FPS? Dunno...

Agreed. Or alternatively the footage from the fastest lap : the 1:34.2 was lost in editing or file corrupted or what not, and they used the footage from the second fastest lap. Just seems fishy that is all...

Yes... just like how Porsche did their Spa lap and then didn’t have the footage. It happens. Pikes Peak they lost the onboard footage. Lol