Some enthusiasts love to treat car comparisons like looking at stats on the back of baseball cards, and automakers know this. It’s why 0-to-60 times are plastered front and center in ad campaigns for every vehicle that carries fewer than six passengers. However, it’s harder to draw a line between top speed and an enjoyable driving experience than Freddie Freeman hitting four home runs and the Dodgers winning the World Series. Spec sheet victories can drive sales, but owners aren’t really able to use that performance on a public road.
What should be the ultimate automotive benchmark? Do you believe that the quarter-mile pass on a drag strip is still the end-all, be-all? Traditionalists swear by a stopwatch as if it were a Bible, and there is some merit to it. It’s a straightforward method of comparing cars across decades without getting behind the wheel yourself. Do you think the golden ratio is an equal power-to-weight ratio? Like advanced statistics taking sports by storm, people have tried to quantify a fun driving experience using a car’s specifications.
The answer isn’t at the Nürburgring
The answer shouldn’t be a lap time around the Nürburgring, a popular metric nowadays. Yes, the prestige of the 12.9-mile Nordschleife nestled in the Eifel mountains is beyond reproach. However, it is first and foremost a fabled racing venue with the track’s 24-hour race being the ultimate test of car and driver. A fast time over a single, lengthy lap is influenced by the driver’s ability and the weather conditions, alongside the car itself. You’re not suddenly going to become a ‘Ring specialist because you bought a car with a sub-seven-minute lap time.
When Ford unveiled the Ford Mustang GTD in 2024, the Detroit automaker promised that the fastest Mustang ever would lap the Nürburgring in under seven minutes. After an arduous campaign, the suped-up pony car recorded an officially certified lap time of 6:57:685. After further refinement, Ford announced last week that it knocked the GTD’s time down to 6:52.072. All for bragging rights and justification for a $300,000 price tag. I should remind people that the Mustang GTD is equipped with active aerodynamics and a semi-active suspension.
