Ring Time

[74z28]

What do all the "Ring Timers" think of this?


Here's is the reply from Ford's Global Performance Vehicle Chief Engineer:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamal Hameedi

Ring times! Oh man don't even get me started on this topic. Our (my) view is that there is no such thing as an official manufacturer Ring time. The times being posted by many manufacturers are in my humble opinion akin to qualifying times being set at a race with no pre/post inspection (ie it would never happen). In the racing world - inspection/verification is a key part of the sport. In order for us to set an "official" time corner weights would have to be taken, calibration checksums need to be verified, engine power verified via chassis rolls, a hoist inspection, and probably a fuel sample taken by an independent 3rd party like a governing/sanctioning body. I would love to see this since everyone seems to be infatuated with Ring times. Having said that, I think it's really important that performance cars be judged against one another on the track - but the comparisons really need to be on the same day by a professional driver (just track condition from day to day puts another huge variable in comparisons). We have seen lap time spreads of over 3 sec with same car same driver different day at VIR. Now extrapolate that to a track with a 7 min lap time. Motor Trend collects cars on the same day and puts a professional driver behind the wheel - not journalists whose driving ability puts yet another huge variable in lap times - and compares vehicles same driver same day. I think they do it correctly. So does Auto Motor und Sport in Germany.

The reason we test at the Ring is because it is a fantastic venue for doing vehicle dynamics work. You get so much different content in terms of turns, elevation, etc that you would need to visit 5 different tracks to duplicate it. It's also a chance for our North American vehicle dynamics guys to cross pollinate with our Team RS guys since we are all one group now. Team RS gets a chance to offer feedback on the RWD cars and the SVT guys offer perspective on the FWD cars. That's really powerful and worth spending the money to send cars and engineers over there. Renting the Ring exclusively ($$$$$!) to make a video - not so much. I'd rather put that money into the car.

I know this isn't what the internet bench racers want to hear. As soon as there is a standard for measuring lap times - our performance vehicles will be the first in line to get tested. Until then - it's just marketing and a total free for all. They are very cool to watch though. Lol. The 2013/2014 GT500 sold just fine without a published Ring time (who could have imagined!). Actually we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make more GT500s due to high demand. I've seen other performance cars with published Ring times being offered with incentives and cash on the hood (again - who could have imagined!). So I sleep pretty well at night. And spend my days (and nights) working on the next slayer vs. worrying about Ring times.

Hopefully this gives you some perspective on where our minds are at wrt Ring times.
See you at SEMA!

Jamal

[DrDJ]

I think the information and perspective he put forward are reasonable. Certainly it is difficult to reproduce all variables with different cars, from different companies, different days, differing weather conditions etc. Certainly Ford sells Mustangs just fine without the Ring time. And GT500's are nice cars with exceptional power and performance.

That being said, they still seem pretty dodgy about saying what they were able to get out of a GT500. And that video that circulated on SVT Performance seemed rather suspect as to any authenticity, other than that they had their car over there testing. And I CANT BELIEVE that if it was a great time they wouldn't have said so...why in the world would you not report a great time if you have one to report?? You can state all of the possible variables yes...but the drag strip also has MANY variables and some cars go right to their max potential and others not...drivers vary...in fact all conditions also vary in sanctioned races.

People do actually care about ring times because even though it can vary and isn't the racing benchmark its sometimes put off to be, it does give "some" ability to compare performance racing. I for one would like to know what they got out of a stock GT500, but it seems we will never know the answer to this question. No matter, Im happy with my car and it makes no difference I suppose.

[yellow69z28rs]

They cant put anything on the internet if isn't true.....French model

[sporto20]

I agree with him. I said something to this effect on the Z28 forum when that car's Ring time was posted against the ZL1...and got a less-than-respectful response. There are just too many variables involved to say one car is faster than another on a course as long as the Ring. Think about it...just ONE world class sprinter's time in the 100m can vary as much as 0.6s from day to day...and the entire race lasts under 10s!