Silverstone Circuit Enjoys Cacophony of European Supercar Excellence
If a Ferrari Pista going at it against a Porsche GT2 RS and an Aventador SVJ isn’t enough, how about adding McLaren Senna to the mix as well?
The Lovecars YouTube channel has pitched an absolute cacophony of excellence into the world with their quadruple-header video. It kicks off with the UK’s grumpiest yet most lovable race car driver, Tiff Needell, taking the Porsche GT2 RS around the celebrated Silverstone circuit in the UK to warm it up. Then, they throw the keys to the more cheerful and younger Le Mans racer Oliver James Webb to set a lap time and run some commentary in the Porsche GT2 RS, the Ferrari Pista, Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, and the McLaren Senna.
For the video, Lovecars was at a track day event put together by the London based and forensically obsessive Topaz Detailing company. Word has it that if you’re in London and want a $12,000 car wash then that’s the place to visit, but we’re more interested than what’s being done to get the cars dirty here.
Webb is, as expected, a phenomenally fast driver but he’s also a communicative one at the same time. He takes out the Aventador SVJ first and explains he’s not a fan of the standard Aventador on the track, but when he’s done he expresses the SVJ is “Incredible. The brakes still go too soft early, but the amount of grip mid-corner, and on the power with that steering at the rear, it’s transformed this car.” He drops a 1 minute 1o.09-second lap as his fastest before moving onto the GT2.
ALSO SEE: Bugatti Chiron Driven! 1,500 Horsepower of Engineering Excellence
This GT2 RS is not standard though and is tuned by Manthey Racing. Here, Webb knows it’s going to be a powerful and grippy car, but he’s interested in its drivability. “That thing is the most lethal, I can tell you that,” Webb explains on the warm down lap, “It’s the one you have to fight for the most. That is definitely the one to beat so far, I think.” He was right, and he took it home in 1 minute and 8.54 seconds. That’s well over a second faster than the Aventador SVJ, and a massive amount to gain on a single lap at this level. We would rather it had been a stock GT2 RS to see what the real difference is.
Webb then jumps in the stock Pista, which according to Tiff should be quicker than the GT2 RS on the basis that it’s made by Ferrari. Webb identifies how direct it is on steering before clocking in his lap time, and is a full second slower than the modified Porsche with a time of 1 minute and 9.47 seconds. “That was very, very, impressive,” Webb tells us after his hot laps, “Very stiff, much more capable than the [standard] 488. Braking is very impressive. No fade at all … that is a big thing for track day days and also for brake and tire wear combined. Pads and discs, which everyone knows who tracks their cars, so that was mighty impressive.”
Finally, Webb gets behind the wheel of the Senna, which we would rank as a hypercar and assumed it would stomp all over the supercars. Also, Webb was a test driver in the development of the Senna. Straight away, he points out that he believes the Senna has the best braking ability of a road car in the world. He blew the other cars away with a 1 minute 7.08 lap straight off, then slapped down a 1 minute 6.38 lap straight after. As you would expect, Webb loves everything about the Senna, and we suspect he may have tried extra hard because being a test driver for McLaren is not something anyone would take lightly.
Join the 6SpeedOnline forums now!
