Superb British performance car mag, evo, has some interesting new laptimes published in issue 114. Â The Bedford Autodrome’s West Circuit is always the sight of evo’s lap testing, a 1.8 mile circuit that the magazine testers call ‘fast and technical’. Â
Although the track was damp in places when the new BMW M3 took to the Autodrome, it’s time of 1:26.60 is just two tenths behind its big brother, the heavier but much more powerful BMW M6. Â That time is also slightly quicker than that put up by the Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
An obvious M3 competitor, the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, was just under three seconds slower than the M3. At 1:29.50 in conditions similar to that of the M3’s drive, the Benz was three-tenths faster than the previous-generation BMW M3 CS and over a half-second faster than the old C55 AMG. 
If you were to give the Pontiac G8 GT a slightly different front end, a thicker bodykit, and a supercharged V8, you’d have the Vauxhall VXR8 Supercharged.  Its ‘track damp in places’ time of 1:30.00 gets close to that of the C63 AMG.  Even with an insane amount of power, the VXR8 can’t generate enough get-up-and-go to overcome the slower corner exit speeds which are a result of the Vauxhall’s size, more than anything else. Â
For context, the fastest car evo has taken around Bedford’s West Circuit is a Radical SR3 1300.  The Radical’s radical time? 1:17.10, although that’s just 2.5 seconds faster than the Ariel Atom 300 Supercharged.  Porsche’s Carrera GT has an evo laptime of 1:19.70; that’s 2.5 seconds faster than the Audi R8.  The Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano is a second slower than the R8 but posts a laptime 1-and-1 tenth faster than the Ferrari F430. Â
Bentley’s Continental GT is listed at 1:32.25, the Hemi-powered Chrysler 300C is 1:34.60.  Volkswagen’s Gabbit GTI splits that gap.Â
Check out another evo laptime post here.
