Quote:
Originally Posted by Steved
I was with Chris later that evening and there was around 1mm of tread (i.e. below the legal limit) remaining on his rear Michelin PS2s, so they were definitely past their best.
What you need to remember is that the M3 was Chris' own car, not a press car nor one that was supplied and maintained by the magazine. He thought it would be fun to compare his M3 with the GT3 and GT-R as a reference marker, and he could certainly have driven it quicker but it would not have been 'quick enough' to make a material difference to the superiority of the GT-R (and nor would I expect it to).
That's also the reason why he didn't endlessly whittle away the acceleration times. Sure, the M3 will crack 10 seconds to 100 mph, but the GT-R was already at 8.5 seconds without trying.
The point Chris aimed to prove in those videos was subjective (namely how easy it was to deliver metronomic performance in the GT-R) but using some objective measures as an illustration. Being more precise with those measures would not have changed his conclusion, just cost him wear and tear on his own car.
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Thanks for that insight Steved.
I was very surprised that he would have let his own car get as low as 1mm of tread as like you said this is illegal and in his profession would be embarrassing to has to explain to the police. But 1mm would effect the grip on both the acceleration run and the hot lap but the actual difference between giving 100% and an easy to drive 85~90% may only amount to a half second a lap difference or in other words wouldn't have affected the outcome one little bit.
Did he happen to mention why the brakes performed the way they did, an outlap and a now semi-hot lap shouldn't have left the car with no brakes. Was there any explanation from him on this point as this is of more concern than the car's inabilities to match it's performance figures.