Times on Suzuka

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Ryan81

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I've been testing various cars on Suzuka and so far the top of line Japanese cars e.g. Impreza WRX STI '07 and NSX Type R '92 have achieved faster times than the C63 AMG. This is normal though, right? The Merc weighs 1730kg, while the R is about 500kg lighter, MR layout and more aerodynamic. The Impreza sticks to the road like a fly on **** and is 4WD to boot.
So far, the California '08 has taken them all to the cleaners, with the Type R a distant second.

Even though the AMG has 507 PP, 473hp, it is outperformed on Suzuka by a 297hp NSX with 470 PP. But seriously, is that primarily because Suzuka is quite a technical circuit and therefore favours better handling cars?
 
The fact of the matter is that circuits with more turns than straights (ex. Suzuka, Tsukuba, Nurburgring) will favor lighter cars. Likewise, circuits with more straights than turns (Route X, Monza, Sarthe) will favor cars with more horsepower.

It's also good to keep track of a car's power-to-weight ratio and not focus entirely on its horsepower. A 1000HP Veyron will easily get beaten by a 300HP Deltawing on a track with turns when the latter car weighs almost four times less.
 
Yeah, Suzuka has basically two places where you're really flat out for a decent stretch, and the front straight still isn't really that long. The rest of the time it's all corners. Power will do nothing for you in the esses of sector 1, and you can lose a huge chunk of time through there alone. Even just turns 1 and 2. If you have to slow quite heavily just to make it around turn 1 before really slowing it for turn 2... compared to a car that can more handily glide through turn 1 and then carry more through turn 2... well in the first 1/2 sequence of the lap there's a decent chunk of time.
 

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