Case in point: a homologated (i.e. stock road car) Ford RS200 Evo set a record of 0-60 in 3.07 seconds back in 1986. When tuned for racing (non-road-legal) they would hit 60 in 2.1 sec.
That's with a 2.0 litre straight-four engine, in the 1980s.
Optimizing for ludicrous acceleration has always been possible. But it is at odds with race track performance, which is what Ferrari, Bugatti, Lamborghini are focused on. At the track, if you are going below 80 mph at any point after the first 4 seconds, you're doing it wrong.
Ferrari, McLaren, and Lamborghini are focused on race track performance. Bugatti is optimized for top speed and prestige, which makes them hogs on the corners due to the heavyass train engine that powers it.
It also has a worse drag coefficient than your prius, it needs to suck in an enormous amount of air to cool and feed that quad-turbocharged w16 engine.
> But it is at odds with race track performance, which is what Ferrari, Bugatti, Lamborghini are focused on.
I've been wondering about that for some time. What type(s) of competitions do cars like that enter? I'm not exactly knowledgeable in the racing world, so my view is very limited; the few times a see something about racing (excluding F1 and rally which are obviously different beasts), I mainly see BMWs, Porches, Corvettes (I think) and so on. Maybe my limited exposure just covered the wrong competition?
a standard Porsche 911 is not really a racecar. it can be really fun to drive on a track and it will get good lap times, but no one would race this car in a serious competition. this type of car will mainly be driven on the street and in amateur races.
now there are certain racing series like FIA GT3 where manufacturers are required to make a certain number of street-legal vehicles to qualify that car for the competition. a Porsche 911 GT3 RS is an example of this type of car. make a couple small modifications and your street-legal car is a GT3 racecar. homologated cars like this tend to push the limits of what's tolerable to drive on the street; they're not really setup to be comfortable.
I get that the Porches in races are not exactly like the Porches on the street.
But how does that work for Bugati, Ferrari, Lamborghini (and McLaren, Pagani, Koenigsegg)? Are the street cars (more or less) the same as the ones in races? Do they even race?
And in conclusion, how accurate is the statement that (production models of) Ferrari, Bugatti, Lamborghini are focused on race track performance?
There is a key difference between being used in actual races and being built for the racetrack. Lots of rich people want cars built for the racetrack, without actually racing them.
The word for "road car exactly like a race car" is "homologated". It's done in some racing series, basically forcing manufacturers to build 200 copies of the car, making it road legal, and putting at least some of those on the market.
there's an inherent tradeoff between comfort/luxury on the street and track performance. every luxury feature adds weight, which compromises track performance. for the track, you want a stiff suspension and you want the car to be as low as possible to the ground. when you drive on the street, you probably don't want to feel the crashing impact of every pothole and you really don't want to worry about scraping the car (or even getting stuck) on speedbumps.
> But how does that work for Bugati, Ferrari, Lamborghini (and McLaren, Pagani, Koenigsegg)? Are the street cars (more or less) the same as the ones in races? Do they even race?
it's hard to give a simple answer to this question because the manufacturers you listed make a pretty wide range of cars. they try to hit a lot of different points on the luxury vs track performance, but they're all oriented much more towards repeatable track performance than a model s.
if by "race" you mean the local track, sure, all of these cars are going to perform very well. even the most luxury focused models are going to totally outclass my hot hatch and keep going for a lot longer. if you're talking about a serious race, no you cannot just show up with your street-legal ferrari and start racing. for one thing, safety regs for these races will usually be incompatible with local laws for street cars (eg, roll cages are illegal in many jurisdictions, but required for races), and you would want to strip out a lot more weight anyway (passenger seat, floormats, etc) to be competitive. you can get really close with certain homologated models though. I believe most of the manufacturers you listed participate in GT2/GT3, but I'm not familiar with the specific cars from every brand.
> And in conclusion, how accurate is the statement that (production models of) Ferrari, Bugatti, Lamborghini are focused on race track performance?
it's true that any car from any of those manufacturers is going to be much more focused on repeatable track performance than mass market hondas, VWs, etc. the extent to which comfort and practicality is compromised varies a lot between specific models.
I hope this answers your question. I'm certainly not an authoritative source, just an enthusiast.
For general "racing" you can apply a number of tricks, including "pumping" the gas during cornering, clutch in more gradually, brake boosting - all keeping the turbo spooled. But I was specifically thinking about running at a fixed speed between 1500-2000 rpm and then mash the gas because you want acceleration - think of overtaking. An EV is vastly superior in this regard because you just press the throttle and off you go.
That's with a 2.0 litre straight-four engine, in the 1980s.
Optimizing for ludicrous acceleration has always been possible. But it is at odds with race track performance, which is what Ferrari, Bugatti, Lamborghini are focused on. At the track, if you are going below 80 mph at any point after the first 4 seconds, you're doing it wrong.