Posts tagged race track

For a long time I’ve pushed the fact that even though the Quattroporte was beat in horsepower and straight-line acceleration by the BMW M5 and the Mercedes S66 AMG, it was faster on the racetrack. The whole package of weight balance, suspension, chassis tuning, and electronics was such a superb setup that the car really is a lot faster than it looks on paper. EVO magazine proved it when they ran it around their Bedford Autodrome track in England. The Quattroporte was the fastest sedan, until they reconfigured the track and re-set the scores. Just look at these track times and the Quattroporte bests a lot of cars that should be faster.

Well now another Maserati has proven that it isn’t all about horsepower or straight-line speed. EVO magazine teamed up with a car fanatic we can all be jealous of, and a professional driver to push 5 supercars around the legendary ‘Green Hell’, otherwise known as the Nürburgring Nordschleife, all in an effort to answer one question: “Which one’s fastest?”

Apparently ONE guy is lucky enough to own an MC12, an Enzo, a Carrera GT, a Koenigsegg CCX, and a Zonda F. Now keep in mind, these cars range from 600 – 901 hp and are capable of sub 4 second 0-60 mph.

Surprisingly the most expensive car in the group – the Koenigsegg CCX came in dead last. Fast in a straight line, but the “…peaky way the power is delivered made it challenging to control.” No lap time was published for the CCX. The Carrera GT came in 4th with a lap time of 7.28.71 – matching the time set by factory driver Robert Rohrl during development.

Third place went to the Ferrari Enzo, with a lap time of 7:25.21. The Pagani Zonda, powered by a 7.3 liter Mercedes powerplant came in second with a lap time of 7:24.65.

With a lap time of 7:24.29 the Maserati MC12 came in first place. Not only did it beat the rest of these massively capable supercars, but it set a new production car lap record in the process. The MC12 was the heaviest car in the group, had ‘old-fashioned’ steel brakes and conventional dampers, but still took them on and won. Just like in the GranTurismo and the Quattroporte, the MC12’s sum is greater than its individual parts.

Just because one car should be faster than another on paper, doesn’t make it so.