Engine stats and performance figures are at the heart of any 'mine's better than yours' debate and yet the key factor in a car's real world performance is often completely overlooked - tyres. And, yes, apologies. At the heart of what follows is the ruddy 'ring again. Blame the fact I'm off out there on Sunday to drive the
Megane 275 Trophy
aiming for front-driven glory with its unfortunately named '#Under8' campaign.
Track tyres on a Megane = true supercar pace?
Think about that for a second though. This and the
SEAT Leon Cupra
it's trying to, um, unseat are now lapping the 'ring at a pace that not so long ago was the preserve of Walter Rohrl in a 911 GT3, the 996 version being the first road car he broke that benchmark with. These are hot hatches, albeit seriously souped up, now able to cover that famous 13 miles at a pace only previously achievable by a motorsport influenced 911. The minimum for 'serious' cars is now seven and a half, seven dead now the real target since Porsche ran
the 918 Spyder
It was chatting with Sport Auto's Horst von Saurma and reading the special issue of the mag celebrating 200 'Super Tests' that really brought it home. In it they picked out the 911 GT3s, BMW M3s, Golf GTIs and V8 mid-engined Ferraris timed since the Super Test started in 1997. Most have improved their lap times by around 30 seconds in that time thanks to incremental improvements in performance and technology.
Cup style tyres now de rigueur for lap glory
And then you look at the BMW M3. E36: 8min 35sec. E46: 8min 22sec. E92: 8:05. F80: 7min 52sec. But among it all an anomaly in 2003 -
CSL
: 7min 50sec. Four seconds faster than the second-gen 996 GT3 tested the same year. Six seconds faster than the plastic windowed super hardcore Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale lapped a year later. In an M3. OK, an M3 100kg-odd lighter than the standard one and with another 17hp. But still 'just' an M3.
Even now Sport Auto regards the CSL's time as astonishing, and for good reason. And at the heart of it? The Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tyres. Since that time eight out of the 10 fastest cars ever tested by Sport Auto set their times on sport or 'cup' equivalents.
Those original Pilot Sport Cup tyres did the business on a dry track but were pretty extreme for use off it, even if acceptance (or perhaps expectation) has become more widespread than those early days of CSL owners having to sign their lives away. That a souped-up saloon could be transformed into a proper supercar slayer with a set of fancy rubber proves an important point. Likewise the fact the Carrera GT - a mid-sevens car on original rubber - is widely considered to be 15-20 seconds faster on second-gen Cups. Meaning it's now only 10 seconds or so off the pace of the hybrid/four-wheel drive 918.
Leon wouldn't have gone sub eight on regular rubber
Does this all come at a cost though? We
explored that previously
in a Megane when we tried out some supposed track-friendly street tyres at Spa. And promptly melted them in a few laps. Are these new Cup tyres any better than a one-shot quali tyre geared for lap time (and now marketing) glory? I did once hear tell of bored tyre testers livening up a dull industry pool session by equipping a Skoda Octavia with a set of racing slicks and black tape over the badges to go harrying Porsche test drivers and raise gossip of a mystery budget mega saloon in development. All it took was a set of rubber. Who's to say similar stunts aren't being pulled in this new obsession with lap times. A question for both Michelin and Renault on Monday I reckon...
What do I know though. You're looking at the man who deliberately put eco tyres on his car in the hope the harder compound would make it do big skids.