I would venture and say that an upgrade in tire compound to that of the CFTP 500, as well the additional 2” of width front tire and almost 0.5” in the rear, would net a 2-3 sec improvement on that same lap / track.
I rewatched the lap and only followed the vette the 2nd time. I watched it again and compared the line to the gt500. Very telling/interesting things I noticed by doing so.
Honestly, on this particular track, I think a sticky tire would do very little, and a wider front tire may actually hurt turn in. The lap line seemed very rushed but I realized it’s a playful midship just hungry to take a set. It needs power for this track, but turn in and holding force was really great. Very agile. Pretty stable too.
Only places I really see a sticky tire helping is braking zones, especially high speed ones. The odd thing is the gt500 routinely stopped from higher speed quicker than the c8 and would reach a lower speed faster. 140-80 was faster in the gt500 than 130-90 in the vette. That could be intentional trailing though. Its fascinating to see where the gt500 put time on the c8. Speed was no contest, corners it would give up some. Braking zones. Wow. Just much better woah and go with competent enough yaw and turn in.
I think the c8 would need tires, brakes, and 150hp to keep up with the gt500 cftp. Rumor has it the next z06 will be a flat plane crank na 600-700hp mill, so that’s probably perfect.
The zr1 will be twin turbo fp v8 with 900hp if I heard right.
Good time to like American cars. They are officially hyper cars period at that point.
I’m hoping for a gt500 kr with more tech, lighter frame or massive lightening, and 850hp.