Red Bull's Horner Thinks Aston Martin Valkyrie Could Topple Porsche's Ring Lap

I think it would be quite difficult to best the 919's time any time soon. 3 championships in 4 years and 43 podium finishes...the 919 is bona fide. The amount of development that has gone into that car over many, many race laps (not to mention testing) is pretty enormous. Has the Valkyrie even hit a track in anger yet?
 
Mmm, no.

I mean, there's a few issues with this statement, but the biggest of all is that there isn't a record. No official timing body exists and there is no record keeper. The entire concept of a Nordschleife record lap, particularly in a production car, is a myth.


However, there is a single exception to that. This is the sport auto supertest. The magazine does independently lap and time the cars it tests, and keeps the records of them. In that case, the cars must use production, showroom tyres. But that also requires the car to be road legal, having passed German roadworthiness certificate (TUV)... and be registered in Germany. And the magazine conducts the tests, skipping T13, not the manufacturer.
Oh, if you keep pushing that no official timing body thing, you can’t count any times set outside of an official event such as... well what exactly? For Nurburgring there is no such thing. And the sport auto test can’t be trusted 100% so where do we stop with that?
If we keep going that way, then also 919 didn’t beat the record, so Aston shouldn’t bother :P
 
Whenever someone asks for F1 fans ideas to make the sport better, I say: time trials at the Nordschleife. Non-championship weekend with all team drivers competing. It would be a fan favorite, sell the place out, make great dramatic TV, and will never happen.
 
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Oh, if you keep pushing that no official timing body thing, you can’t count any times set outside of an official event such as... well what exactly?
I think the last one was the Rundstrecken Challenge Nürburgring in 2011.
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And the sport auto test can’t be trusted 100% so where do we stop with that?
It's the only independently timed Nordschleife lap test.
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If we keep going that way, then also 919 didn’t beat the record
It beat the record, but didn't set a new one. We've been very, very clear on this in our articles on the topic (without buzzkilling the achievement).
 
By the way, there is a reason LMP1, F1 and other superfast race cars wont show up at the Nordschleife... safety. It was a crazy - yet awesome - move from Porsche bringing the 919 evo to the Nordschleife. Its simply dangerous and a slight mistake by Timo Bernhard could have ended in a tragedy.
 
I think it would be quite difficult to best the 919's time any time soon. 3 championships in 4 years and 43 podium finishes...the 919 is bona fide. The amount of development that has gone into that car over many, many race laps (not to mention testing) is pretty enormous. Has the Valkyrie even hit a track in anger yet?

This.

The 919 has been tested to death under the hardest conditions. It's the top dog. Only thing that could potentially beat it in the short term is another modified LMP1 or an F1 car.

Valkyrie? No :lol:
 
I think it would be quite difficult to best the 919's time any time soon. 3 championships in 4 years and 43 podium finishes...the 919 is bona fide. The amount of development that has gone into that car over many, many race laps (not to mention testing) is pretty enormous. Has the Valkyrie even hit a track in anger yet?

Built from the ground up to rules, regulations, and restrictions to effectively limit its performance. They might have derestricted the car, but the basic race winning design and package is still the product of restrictions that the Valkyrie won't have. To a degree, it's the same thing with the Project One power train.

I'm not saying the Valkyrie will be faster, but I wouldn't bet against it just because Porsche did the best job with a rule set entirely unrelated to the question at hand.
 
It's the only independently timed Nordschleife lap test.
Ok but, first they don’t get close to factory times, and still you can never trust them to be 100% unbiased.

I think it’s time to cut it off, the only thing we established there is that there is no governing body to keep the times, so there are no records and you can trust nobody :lol:
 
This.

The 919 has been tested to death under the hardest conditions. It's the top dog. Only thing that could potentially beat it in the short term is another modified LMP1 or an F1 car.

Valkyrie? No :lol:

Wouldn't expect you to bet against anything that isn't a Porsche
 
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Ok but, first they don’t get close to factory times, and still you can never trust them to be 100% unbiased.
Yes, you can't trust the independent testing body with its own consistent timing system and drivers... and journalists... to be unbiased, because it can't get close to the manufacturers' own timed laps with their own timing systems, non-standard factory options (tyres, roll cage, reduction in weight - often cited to equalise the difference from adding the roll cage), on closed testing sessions with no outside scrutiny or verification... and a PR department intended to promote the brand.

That's absolutely how it works. The promotional version in beyond ideal conditions is true, and the slower independent body with factory vehicles is not to be trusted as 100% unbiased.


(do I really need the sarcasm tags at this point?)
 
Wouldn't expect you to bet against anything that isn't a Porsche

:D

I'm a big fan of Porsche, but I'll criticise them when I think it's justified!

The Valkyrie will be fast, no doubt. But there's no way AM will be able to afford to develop it to the same extent Porsche have developed the 918... even if AM had the money, I don't see how they could replicate 4 seasons of hard racing, including multiple 24h races.

So even if it had similar stats to the 918 (weight/power/downforce), I still don't think it would beat the 918's time.
 
Yes, you can't trust the independent testing body with its own consistent timing system and drivers... and journalists... to be unbiased, because it can't get close to the manufacturers' own timed laps with their own timing systems, non-standard factory options (tyres, roll cage, reduction in weight - often cited to equalise the difference from adding the roll cage), on closed testing sessions with no outside scrutiny or verification... and a PR department intended to promote the brand.

That's absolutely how it works. The promotional version in beyond ideal conditions is true, and the slower independent body with factory vehicles is not to be trusted as 100% unbiased.


(do I really need the sarcasm tags at this point?)
You are taking it bit too far, you make it sound like if I said “sport auto or whatever is full of ****” (don’t edit), I just said you can’t take it as if it was some sort of gospel.

:D

I'm a big fan of Porsche, but I'll criticise them when I think it's justified!

The Valkyrie will be fast, no doubt. But there's no way AM will be able to afford to develop it to the same extent Porsche have developed the 918... even if AM had the money, I don't see how they could replicate 4 seasons of hard racing, including multiple 24h races.

So even if it had similar stats to the 918 (weight/power/downforce), I still don't think it would beat the 918's time.
I think they got 918’s time in the pocket, on the out lap :D
 
:D

I'm a big fan of Porsche, but I'll criticise them when I think it's justified!

The Valkyrie will be fast, no doubt. But there's no way AM will be able to afford to develop it to the same extent Porsche have developed the 918... even if AM had the money, I don't see how they could replicate 4 seasons of hard racing, including multiple 24h races.

So even if it had similar stats to the 918 (weight/power/downforce), I still don't think it would beat the 918's time.

It's called a technical partnership, the fact that you and a few others are neglecting this being as much a RBR project as it is AM is strange. Also why are you mentioning the 918, I think you mean 919.

The fact is the car doesn't need to replicate 4 years of hard racing to achieve a glorified time attack. If we were talking about what the 919 was built for instead of this, then I could see your point. However, considering Newey is one of the most regarded and seasoned race engineers ever, along with his team to help with the project, the same team that has helped win 4 WDC/WCC and several victories in F1. I'm sure they're quite capable. As for the driver side, they're a dime a dozen and to get someone to practice and learn the track and be fast isn't a massively tall task.

The idea is quite realistic, time and the actual attempt will tell but it's not that far fetched.
 
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You are taking it bit too far, you make it sound like if I said “sport auto or whatever is full of ****” (don’t edit), I just said you can’t take it as if it was some sort of gospel.
No, I'm making it sound like you said journalists using consistent, independent timing and factory standard, road-registered cars free from manufacturer influence are not to be trusted as unbiased, because their times are slower than manufacturers' own times on closed test days with non-standard cars and a product to promote.

Which you did.

And since you brought up records being invalid for using non-standard tyres, and sport auto is the only test that uses that standard (and no other body keeps official records) it's a bit more of a surprise that you think they're biased.
 
It's called a technical partnership, the fact that you and a few others are neglecting this being as much a RBR project as it is AM is strange. Also why are you mentioning the 918, I think you mean 919.

The fact is the car doesn't need to replicate 4 years of hard racing to achieve a glorified time attack. If we were talking about what the 919 was built for instead of this, then I could see your point. However, considering Newey is one of the most regarded and seasoned race engineers ever, along with his team to help with the project, the same team that has helped win 4 WDC/WCC and several victories in F1. I'm sure they're quite capable. As for the driver side, they're a dime a dozen and to get someone to practice and learn the track and be fast isn't a massively tall task.

The idea is quite realistic, time and the actual attempt will tell but it's not that far fetched.

*919!

We'll see... Driver certainly isn't an issue - plenty of 'Ring experts around. But personally, I don't see the AM beating the time, whoever is behind the wheel.
 
*919!

We'll see... Driver certainly isn't an issue - plenty of 'Ring experts around. But personally, I don't see the AM beating the time, whoever is behind the wheel.

That's fine but since it is the track car being the one Horner is thinking of beating the time, and the fact that track cars of that level might as well be race cars. That is a major reason I think it's got a chance. Just actually has to come to fruition, clearly Christian is far more in the know about it so I'd have to guess that the car is beyond fancy renderings.
 
No, I'm making it sound like you said journalists using consistent, independent timing and factory standard, road-registered cars free from manufacturer influence are not to be trusted as unbiased, because their times are slower than manufacturers' own times on closed test days with non-standard cars and a product to promote.
No, I mentioned their times being slower, because it means they’re not exactly at the limit. It means the times between cars could be closer/further apart depending on how well they suited driver’s style.

And since you brought up records being invalid for using non-standard tyres, and sport auto is the only test that uses that standard (and no other body keeps official records) it's a bit more of a surprise that you think they're biased.
I only mentioned it, when somebody said they will slap on slicks on street Valkyrie.

I’m just not sure why do you assume manufacturers cheat, use modified cars on non production tires and then assume that journalists are always fair and their test times are always... I don’t know, correct?
 
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No, I mentioned their times being slower, because it means they’re not exactly at the limit.
It could mean that.

Or it could mean that they're using standard production cars, not tweaked, pre-production cars "representative" of the final product, with a roll cage fitted, rear seats and aircon removed (always to "counter the added weight of the roll cage"), sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, and given endless runs on a course close for a manufacturer test day...

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I only mentioned it, when somebody said they will slap on slicks on street Valkyrie.
And it's still not relevant. The NIO EP9 had slicks on. Nobody cares, because there's no official record, because there's no official timing. The only place non-standard tyres are relevant is the sport auto test, and that's only for German-registered, German-road legal cars.
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I’m just not sure why do you assume manufacturers cheat, use modified cars on non production tires
That'd be because they do. They actually do. They all do it, and the press releases all tell you that they've done it. They're pretty open about it.

Every "record" lap you've heard of for a road car tested by the manufacturer involves a car that's any one of, and commonly all of, a pre-production "representative" car, on "track-focused" tyres, with a roll cage (which they all say adds no stiffness) and rear seats/air-con/infotainment removed to counter the added weight of the roll cage. It's completely standard practice for 'Ring lap "records".

We wrote an entire article on this...

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and then assume that journalists are always fair
That'd be because that's the job of a motoring journalist. We have to be, or we're not motoring journalists. When we're no unbiased and far, you get sites like Electrek.
 
not tweaked, pre-production cars "representative" of the final product, with a roll cage fitted, rear seats and aircon removed (always to "counter the added weight of the roll cage"), sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, and given endless runs on a course close for a manufacturer test day...
That'd be because they do. They actually do. They all do it, and the press releases all tell you that they've done it. They're pretty open about it.

Every "record" lap you've heard of for a road car tested by the manufacturer involves a car that's any one of, and commonly all of, a pre-production "representative" car, on "track-focused" tyres, with a roll cage (which they all say adds no stiffness) and rear seats/air-con/infotainment removed to counter the added weight of the roll cage. It's completely standard practice for 'Ring lap "records".
Ok, and how does it affect the car which currently holds the production car "record"? The car that you can order with infotainment delete, A/C delete, and... wait for it... sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres? It even had stock roll "cage" ( more of a rollbar) during its attempt. It only had seat changed.

And it's still not relevant. The NIO EP9 had slicks on. Nobody cares, because there's no official record, because there's no official timing. The only place non-standard tyres are relevant is the sport auto test, and that's only for German-registered, German-road legal cars.
Yeah nobody cares, because it's a non regular production car (16 or 17ish being made) and nobody takes them seriously, but to say it's not relevant? If Porsche slapped slicks on the GT2 RS and did a 6:30 and claimed they're fastest now, do you still think nobody would care?

That'd be because that's the job of a motoring journalist. We have to be, or we're not motoring journalists. When we're no unbiased and far, you get sites like Electrek.
It's cute that you're unbiased and you assume your journalist buddies are the same, I appreciate it.
 
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Ok, and how does it affect the car which currently holds the production car "record"?
No car holds that record, because there isn't one.
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The car that you can order with infotainment delete, A/C delete, and... wait for it... sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres? It even had stock roll "cage" ( more of a rollbar) during its attempt.
Ah, the 911 GT2, which is unofficially slower than the Radical SR8, NIO EP9 and McLaren P1 LM. Still, it sounds like a completely stock, unmodified car with factory optio...
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It only had seat changed.
... ah, there it is.
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Yeah nobody cares, because it's a non regular production car (16 or 17ish being made) and nobody takes them seriously, but to say it's not relevant?
Who cares if it's a one-off or they made 30 million of them?
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If Porsche slapped slicks on the GT2 RS and did a 6:30 and claimed they're fastest now, do you still think nobody would care?
Yep. I mean the internet would argue itself into a foamy puddle about it, but it doesn't matter. There are no 'Ring lap records for anyone to go out and beat, because there's no official timing and no official records... and no rules. It doesn't matter if it's a time attack car based on an LMP1 at great expense, or the next hot hatch, and it doesn't matter if they use remoulds from the local tyre shop or million-pound slicks developed specifically for the car to do track days.
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It's cute that you're unbiased and you assume your journalist buddies are the same
Not really. It's the job. I don't know any of the guys at sport auto to be buddies with them, but if they're motoring journalists (and they are) they need to be objective about the cars they test. They do go to a lot of trouble to standardise their particular tests and have a robust rule set to it. Including the road-legal, road-registered rule.

But hey, let's all take modified pre-production cars run by manufacturers in closed sessions for cars they need to advertise based on their laps as fact and ignore anyone independent.


We've covered all of this time and again. 'Ring laps are smashing and all, but they're just publicity material. No-one should put any stock in them whatsoever (even if they were 100% the truth, how relevant do you think it is to Joe Q. Shmee who spends £5m on a car that a professional racing driver can go "X" fast around a random track? Does it mean they can too? Nup) and certainly no-one should be arguing that one car's lap should stand and another shouldn't because it was modified in the wrong way for their personal taste...

Let's remember your original statement on this, that I was responding to:

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True, but regarding Nordschleife, if they try it with road car/slicks they won’t beat 919’s time, and if they do so their time won’t count for any record for production cars as that has to use tires you can buy car with
There isn't a record for production cars. The only thing close to it is the sport auto test, that uses tyres actually on the road-legal, road-registered car. Nobody's time counts for any record, regardless of whether they have slick tyres or not, because there isn't a record for it to count to. That includes the 919 - as we covered in our article on the 919 going faster than the lap record, but not setting a new one.
 
No car holds that record, because there isn't one.

Ah, the 911 GT2, which is unofficially slower than the Radical SR8, NIO EP9 and McLaren P1 LM. Still, it sounds like a completely stock, unmodified car with factory optio...

... ah, there it is.

Who cares if it's a one-off or they made 30 million of them?

Yep. I mean the internet would argue itself into a foamy puddle about it, but it doesn't matter. There are no 'Ring lap records for anyone to go out and beat, because there's no official timing and no official records... and no rules. It doesn't matter if it's a time attack car based on an LMP1 at great expense, or the next hot hatch, and it doesn't matter if they use remoulds from the local tyre shop or million-pound slicks developed specifically for the car to do track days.

Not really. It's the job. I don't know any of the guys at sport auto to be buddies with them, but if they're motoring journalists (and they are) they need to be objective about the cars they test. They do go to a lot of trouble to standardise their particular tests and have a robust rule set to it. Including the road-legal, road-registered rule.

But hey, let's all take modified pre-production cars run by manufacturers in closed sessions for cars they need to advertise based on their laps as fact and ignore anyone independent.


We've covered all of this time and again. 'Ring laps are smashing and all, but they're just publicity material. No-one should put any stock in them whatsoever (even if they were 100% the truth, how relevant do you think it is to Joe Q. Shmee who spends £5m on a car that a professional racing driver can go "X" fast around a random track? Does it mean they can too? Nup) and certainly no-one should be arguing that one car's lap should stand and another shouldn't because it was modified in the wrong way for their personal taste...

Let's remember your original statement on this, that I was responding to:


There isn't a record for production cars. The only thing close to it is the sport auto test, that uses tyres actually on the road-legal, road-registered car. Nobody's time counts for any record, regardless of whether they have slick tyres or not, because there isn't a record for it to count to. That includes the 919 - as we covered in our article on the 919 going faster than the lap record, but not setting a new one.
So cutting to the chase, there are no records, great.
Oh, and yeah, that seat in GT2 RS was definitely worth more time than all those aftermarket modifications, tyres and all the weight reduction you were talking about, surely.

BTW, what is that Sport Auto's robust rule set you're talking about?

Because last I've peeped their GT2 RS ring lap, it was Porsche's test car with aftermarket seat that would never pass TUV inspection in Germany.
So are their cars independent and stock, or not?

And where did I mention ring reco... I mean times, being important? It was all about Valkyrie being capable of beating 919's record

Also I understand that word "record" is very important to you and you will to great lengths to defend its value, but I just can't get over a statement like "regardless of whether they have slick tyres or not" and others similar no matter the context, I just can't, sorry :lol:
 
The standard Valkyrie on road tyres will beat the 911 GT2 RS, no doubt. The AMR Pro, even on slicks will struggle to beat the 919 Evo. Unless they decided to stick a fan and go full Red Bull X1 style.
 
The standard Valkyrie on road tyres will beat the 911 GT2 RS, no doubt. The AMR Pro, even on slicks will struggle to beat the 919 Evo. Unless they decided to stick a fan and go full Red Bull X1 style.

Based on what exactly tells you this?
 
Just an educated guess based on each car's specs.

Then again, my educated guess was wrong about the VW ID.R not being able to beat the Peugeot Pikes Peak, so anything goes.

Problem is there isn't enough info to make "educated guesses" aside from surface specs and as said you need more than that.
 
Problem is there isn't enough info to make "educated guesses" aside from surface specs and as said you need more than that.

I realise that, it's still just fun to speculate at this point.

If you need 100% information before making any comments about anything, then 90% of the whole GT Sport forum will cease to exist :lol:
 
I realise that, it's still just fun to speculate at this point.

If you need 100% information before making any comments about anything, then 90% of the whole GT Sport forum will cease to exist :lol:

No one said you need to have all the information, rather that trying to speculate on limited numbers is a silly exercise when discussing a competitive effort in engineering. Thus some people will press further for why you exactly think that, giving thoughts is fine but more will always be asked for.

I mean if someone gave me the base line stats of the 919 but said it was going toward a car shaped like a brick it'd be obvious how well that is going to work. However this is far more intricate considering the groups involved and as you said prior anything is possible here because of that knowledge/experience and talent
 
Personally I think the AMR Pro should have a good chance, it's based on a road car for a start, which at the ring isn't a disadvantage. The 919 couldn't have gone around the ring, the 919 Evo did it becuase they raised it up so it wouldn't bottom out and damage it's underside. A road car is already designed to operate at a raised height over a GT racer. As nearly all of the Nordschleife is road, not smooth race track, a road car is going to be more suited to driving around it than a race car.

Obviosely I'm not saying a VW Golf therefore has the advantage over the 919 Evo just because it's a road car, the performance gulf between the two is overwhelming, but the Valkyrie is a road car that it being created for such extreme performance, and the AMR Pro is going to improve on that, I can see it haivng a chance. It would be really interesting to see just how it turns out if they ever do a Ring lap in it.
 
Personally I think the AMR Pro should have a good chance, it's based on a road car for a start, which at the ring isn't a disadvantage. The 919 couldn't have gone around the ring, the 919 Evo did it becuase they raised it up so it wouldn't bottom out and damage it's underside. A road car is already designed to operate at a raised height over a GT racer. As nearly all of the Nordschleife is road, not smooth race track, a road car is going to be more suited to driving around it than a race car.

Obviosely I'm not saying a VW Golf therefore has the advantage over the 919 Evo just because it's a road car, the performance gulf between the two is overwhelming, but the Valkyrie is a road car that it being created for such extreme performance, and the AMR Pro is going to improve on that, I can see it haivng a chance. It would be really interesting to see just how it turns out if they ever do a Ring lap in it.
Which is said to have made almost no difference.
https://jalopnik.com/porsche-beat-a-35-year-old-nurburgring-lap-record-with-1827226899
The car’s active aerodynamics all but rid it of understeer, according to race engineer Stephen Mitas. For the Nürburgring, the ride height had to be raised to go over the bumps, which reduces the amount of aerodynamic grip the car has, but there is so much grip that it almost doesn’t matter.

As for the AMR Pro, it may have some benefit of being able to run at the height of the road car, but at the end of the day, the Pro is still a race car and the Valkyrie isn't exactly far off being a race car itself made to comply with the road.
 
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I suppose I don't have any reason to doubt that, but even almost no difference can be seconds around a track as long as the Nordschleife. Truth is we don't really know, the car couldn't have run without the ride height being lifted.

As for the AMR Pro, it may have some benefit of being able to run at the height of the road car, but at the end of the day, the Pro is still a race car and the Valkyrie isn't exactly far off being a race car itself made to comply with the road.
This is also true, but at least the AMR Pro has the advantge of being based on a car built for the road in the first place. As close to a race car as the Valkyrie is, it's still likely to be more comfortable being driven hard on a bumpy road than a Le Mans Prototype. If the Valkyrie wasn't as insane as it is then I don't think it would have even a remote possability of besting the 919 Evo.

The whole question of which will be quicker is speculation at this stage, but whatever the outcome it would be a very interesting comparison should it happen.
 
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