The 20 Quickest Cars in Lightning Lap History

Lion tamers. That’s what we felt like after working the 3853-pound 650-hp Camaro ZL1 1LE to a 2:45.7 lap. The 1LE is a modified ZL1 designed for track use. It comes with spool-valve dampers in aluminum housings, steamroller Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3R rubber, a wider mouth to better feed its 11 heat exchangers, dive planes that intimidate like face tattoos, and a carbon-fiber TV tray mounted to the trunklid. You need those parts. They’re the chair and whip necessary to keep this lion from eating you. LAP RESULTS

This car, maybe more than any other, marks the end of an era. Put a fork in high-revving, naturally aspirated engines; they’re done. All new performance engines will have a charger of some kind, and Ferrari, the seminal stalwart of 9000-rpm flat-plane-crank screamers, has adopted two turbochargers for its mid-engine V-8–powered supercar. And a smaller V-8 at that. LAP RESULTS

Back this year with a new 10-speed automatic, the Camaro ZL1 1LE retains its mighty 650-hp V-8. Even at triple-digit speeds, the brake pedal never let us down and tempted us to brake later and later. We previously drove a six-speed ZL1 1LE, and the automatic reduced the manual’s time by 0.7 second. The Camaro still kicks. LAP RESULTS

• Lightning Lap 2019
• Price as tested: $76,380
• Horsepower: 650 hp
• Weight: 3880 lb

The Lamborghini Huracan Evo is a 631-hp V-10-powered flaming Cheeto. We got our hands dirty with one during Lightning Lap 14 and hit 160 mph before smushing the left pedal into Turn 1. It ended the lap one second behind the 2018 Lamborghini Performante. Chop that up to the lack of downforce, because the Huracan Evo doesn’t have the front splitter or enormous whale tail the Performante wears. In slower corners that require less high-speed downforce to keep the car slung to the pavement, the Evo is capable of fantastic turn-in, and the sticky race tires help too. We used the double apex method in areas that benefited the Evo, gaining fractions of a second in places the Performante took the simpler line. LAP RESULTS

The 760-hp supercharged Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 is serious business. The carbon fiber wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires hold 1.16 g’s through Turn 1. At Hog Pen, in the on-camber corner, the GT500 grabs 1.30 g’s and enters the straight at 113.9 mph and goes until it maxes out at 161.9 mph. It doesn’t mess around, and it’s the most powerful production car Ford has ever made. LAP RESULTS

Every neuron lines up to get the Z06 moving through space as quickly as possible. Gone are the employment doubts, the mortgage-payment anxieties, and the hair-thinning concerns that clutter up your daily thoughts—domestic worry is not possible at 1.20 g’s. Belt into a Z06 with the Z07 package like this one and the automotive-induced enlightenment lasts exactly 2:44.6. LAP RESULTS

The Dodge Viper ACR is festooned with all kinds of fins, vents, and dive planes. Add in the ankle-amputating splitter, a multi-position rear wing, five-point belts, dampers with rebound and compression adjustments, and tires so wide they could steamroll sidewalks and you end up with a genetically modified organism spliced specifically for VIR. LAP RESULTS

Even with a couple of rev-limiter kisses, the Lambo put the pieces together for a 2:44.0, a remarkable feat for a naturally aspirated car competing in a forced-induction world. On the last day, we were puzzling through a ripper that may have put the Huracán Performante into 2:42 territory, but an off-track excursion that hurt nothing but ego left us picking up the pieces and starting again. LAP RESULTS

There are plenty of cars packing more than 577 horsepower on the Lightning Lap all-time leaderboard. There are some equipped with carbon-fiber body panels, torque tubes, drive­shafts, and wings. There are even cars with underbody aerodynamic trickery to manage downforce in accordance with the car’s wishes. But no car, other than the Mercedes-AMG GT R, has all those features plus a dial-in-your-own-talent, race-car–derived nine-mode traction control. LAP RESULTS

This special RC F is a one-off prototype vision for a track-only toy like the Aston Martin Vulcan. Lexus plans to sell it in Japan to rich folk who would rather do playtime in local products than in imports. With carbon-­fiber bodywork, polycarbonate windows, and 721 pounds of Lexus luxury scrubbed from its curb weight, the RC F GT concept is pure track rat. For example, there’s a bare interior, just metal painted black, with a full roll cage and, instead of a center console, there’s a carbon-fiber switch plate with aircraft-style toggles and a bank of push fuses. LAP RESULTS

The 918 cracks 170 mph just after the main-straight kink, meaning that this slight bend, virtually unnoticed in the other cars, is a gut-knotting 1.0-g turn at 165 mph. One g at 165! That’s a number from real racing, the kind that has girls with umbrellas and live TV coverage. Needless to say, working up our nerve in this nearly million-dollar, 887-hp hybrid took some time. LAP RESULTS

The Ford GT’s currency is speed, traded on the exchanges of ACO, WEC, and IMSA. Based on the asking price, its brokers—the 1000 hand-picked applicants who will be allowed to buy the car over the next four years—should have the means to make a track day happen. Whether they choose Virginia International Raceway’s 4.1-mile Grand West Course thrill ride is up to them. For us, it is the obvious choice. We’ve been lapping cars there for more than a decade; we brought the GT to VIR now because we couldn’t secure one to run in 2017’s Lightning Lap 11, and we wanted to make this car part of the official record. The GT at VIR is, in one word, fastest. LAP RESULTS

There are only modest aero aids on the McLaren 600LT—a fixed rear wing adorns its tail, a mild splitter is integrated into its nose, and side skirts are enlisted to direct airflow down its flanks. Its Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R rubber is relatively narrow with a slight stagger (225s in front, 285s out back). On paper, it’s a mere sports car. On track, it’s a supercar. LAP RESULTS

The Porsche 911 Turbo S is the second-quickest car we’ve ever tested to reach 60 mph from a stop, and now it’s only a few cars behind our fastest lap time around VIR. The Turbo S can send up to 368 of its 590 lb-ft of torque to the front wheels, which helped it connect corners over and over. It carries plenty of power in a linear path too, reaching 163.4 mph on the front stretch before diving into Turn 1. We think with actual track tires, it could’ve shaved even more time, but because Porsche’s best rubber for the Turbo S are Pirelli P Zero PZ4 summer tires, that’s what we ran. LAP RESULTS

The GT3 RS uses its 520-hp like you’d want from a high-revving non-turbo flat-six. It screams to 9000 rpm as if someone’s stolen candy from it. Not only does it have a higher redline than the turbocharged 911 GT2 RS, the former fastest car at Lightning Lap, the GT3 RS can shift gears with such speed you may mistake the dual-clutch gearbox for some psychic-shifter. LAP RESULTS

Were the McLaren 650S a blisteringly fast but distant greyhound and the 570S a golden-retriever puppy eager to wag its tail in every corner, then the 720S would be what you’d get from selective breeding. With 710 horsepower, this McLaren hit 171.1 mph on the front straight, which is one of the fastest ever. LAP RESULTS

When the Corvette ZR1 crosses the the start/finish, the lap timer stops at 2:39.5, beating our previous VIR record holder, the Ford GT, by 3.5 seconds. It’s not even Lightning Lap 12’s top time (that award goes to Chevy’s cross-Atlantic rival, the 911), but an adrenaline rush like this usually costs at least twice as much. LAP RESULTS

If you’re curious what the fastest car we’ve ever driven down the front straight at VIR is, it’s the McLaren 765LT. At 174 mph, the McLaren 765LT sucks air into its 754-hp twin-turbo V-8 like an absolute monster. We mistook its Variable Drift Control for a fun mode. It’s not what it sounds like. It’s actually enabled to help keep the car from sliding out of corners, and we had it turned off. It’s possible the McLaren 765LT could’ve wrought an even better time, but it’s already on podium as the third fastest car we’ve driven at VIR. LAP RESULTS

Porsche doesn’t eke out Lightning Lap records. When the 918 Spyder ascended the throne in 2014, it lopped 2.8 seconds off the former champ’s time. Now in strolls the 911 GT2 RS Weissach and almost doubles that interval, cleaving 5.2 seconds from our previous quickest time. Prior to 2018, our best lap around VIR was a 2:43.0 in the Ford GT, just a tenth of a second quicker than the 918. But as of 2018, we have three cars in the 2:30s. Porsche didn’t merely crush the record, it stayed nearly two seconds ahead of the other two cars that also did, including its Chevrolet rival. LAP RESULTS

The McLaren Senna puts up big numbers everywhere: 129.9 mph into Oak Tree, 121.6 out of Hog Pen. It stops, too. The big brakes and Trofeo R suction cups allow this car to shed speed like no other. Braking into Turn 1 results in the driver going into the belts with 1.80 g’s of force. So that’s what it feels like when dough goes through a pasta maker. With very effective active aerodynamics and just 3.8 pounds saddled to each of its 789 horses, the Senna is the fastest car we have ever lapped at VIR. LAP RESULTS