[VIDEO] Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap 2023 is Here!

Yesterday we brought you the fabulous results of Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap 2023, their annual feature that compares lap times of this year’s best performance cars on the 4.1 mile grand course at Virginia International Raceway. The Z06 dominated this year’s event with a lap time of 2:38.6 making it the fastest Corvette ever tested for LL, and it ranks fifth all time on the list which is dominated by purpose-built sports cars costing hundreds of thousands more.

Yesterday’s article from Alex came as a result of him receiving his Lightning Lap results over the weekend in Car and Driver’s February/March print issue, while the rest of us had to wait until today for the magazine to rollout their digital assets for Lightning Lap 2023. Those include an overall video of all 16 performance cars to participate – as well as one minivan – and driver commentary videos.

We highly recommend jumping headfirst into the Lightning Lap 2023 content with the featured article that provides the overview and sets the rules for the competition.

In conjunction with the featured article, Car and Driver also has this video featuring all 16 contenders (and the one minivan) and the Z06s feature comes on at 27:10 in the video:

Next up, here is the featured article on the Corvette Z06 by K.C. Colwell who had the opportunity to pilot the car to its fastest time of 2:38.6. Colwell says in the article that “the longer we lapped it, the more we concluded that this Corvette is really meant for the track.”

Here’s more from the article: Equipped with optional carbon-fiber wheels, which shave 41 pounds of rotating (and unsprung) mass, this car turns in like no other at high speed. There’s almost no understeer at any speed, and the chassis is so balanced that you can easily adjust the nose grip by feeding in brake pressure. The willingness to turn in is so pronounced that we ran the car in the heaviest steering setting, not because it offered any more feel than the other modes but because the heavier on-center effort offered a little more resistance to diving into a corner.

The other major observation from Colwell is how the naturally aspirated V8 could run hard for 10 laps and the “oil temp is barely fazed,” thanks to large heat exchangers mounted on the front of the car.

Driver Commentary

You can also hear from K.C. Colwell in his own words as he sits down with Carlos Lago and talks about his drive in the Z06 and how Chevy engineers said it should do about the same as the C7 ZR1’s time. Of course, we know now that the Z06 bested the ZR1 by .9 of a second despite the fact the ZR1 had more power down those long straights at VIR.

Cowell says that with three days of testing that you start off on day one seeing what the car can do and then each time you’re going faster and faster until the end of the test when you’re flying through the Esses at over 130 mph. However, not every lap goes smoothly as there is video of the Z06 spinning out on the track.

Corvette Z06 vs Lamborghini Huracan

In that driver commentary video above, we see the Z06 on the track and driving ahead of K.C. Colwell is David Beard in the Lamborghini Huracan. Both cars would set their fastest times for the test while on the track together, and it was great fun watching the Z06 reeling in the Lambo during that clip.

For the final video, here is Carlos Lago sitting down with both drivers and deconstructing their laps. This is a fun video with side-by-side video, while the on-screen telemetry shows the location on track and the difference separating the two sports cars:

Source:
Car and Driver

Related:
The C8 Corvette Z06 Blitzed Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap and It’s Even Faster than We’d Hoped
Lightning Lap 2022 is Here, Time to Guess Where the C8 Corvette Z06 Will Land Next Year
[VIDEO] The Fastest Corvettes (and other GM vehicles) at Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap