20-02-2025
Behind the Scenes at Lightning Lap 2025
You've heard the expression, "It takes a village." This is the 18th year we've made the trek from our editorial headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a week of fast lap times around the 4.1-mile Grand Course at Virginia International Raceway. This year, we entered 13 performance cars into the gauntlet. Nobody wants to work from home during Lightning Lap, and it takes a lot of GoPros, lap timers, tires, and snacks to get the job done. Here's a look at the people and machines behind the scenes of this year's annual track test.
BACK TO LIGHTNING LAP 2025
Each car has a checklist before it leaves the paddock:
Are the GoPros running?
Is the SD card pushed into the Racelogic VBOX lap timer?
Are the tire pressures set?
And please honk the horn to sync the video!
There are two GoPros mounted to each vehicle to capture every curb-eating attempt at a good time. Although the quickest laps are completed in just a few minutes, after three track days, there are terabytes of footage.
The 771-hp Bentley Continental GT Speed suckling from the teat of VIR's electrical grid.
Pit lane runs parallel to VIR's front straightaway. Automakers who send engineers and PR folks use the stairwell from the paddock garage above to get to the pits, where they will often adjust tire pressures and run a stopwatch of their own.
Our social media team worked feverishly to answer every question posted by our Instagram followers.
If you're a grilled-cheese sandwich and managing testing editor David Beard is giving you this look: run.
Our video and photo crew work out of the same paddock garages IMSA's race teams do. Sometimes, there is tape left on the concrete from engineers of race weekends past. This year, we found a green dinosaur sticker from AO Racing's "Rexy" Porsche 911 GT3 team. Fitting, because there was no shortage of green cars this year.
Photographers are required to wear a harness while strapped into the photo vehicle during car-to-car photography. It's there to prevent them from accidentally falling out. But if staff photographer Marc Urbano wants to wear it casually as a fashion accessory, we won't stop him.
Associate testing editor Gannon Burgett (left) and video editor Alex Malburg (right) have mounted enough GoPros to Lightning Lap cars to know that putting the camera on the roof—and out of the travel of the windshield wipers—is the right way to do it.
There's more than 6500 horsepower among the cars in this image. And that's without including the 266-hp Subaru Ascent rental car in the background.
The 276-hp Hyundai Elantra N rests on a set of QuickJack portable car lifts as it awaits a new set of rubber.
Editor-in-chief Tony Quiroga refers to Lightning Lap as "employee retention week." Just before technical editor Austin Irwin was about to pursue his dream of becoming the world's greatest (and potentially largest) tap dancer, the opportunity to set a hot lap steered him back. Yet, he still got to dance.
That moment when someone says, "Lunch is ready."
If "Guys Being Dudes" were a band, this would be the album cover.
Buyer's Guide director Rich Ceppos has spent a lifetime in cars. He competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1987. He wrote the tested review of the $400,000 Ferrari F40 in 1991. And he's had his name on the Car and Driver masthead for more than 20 years. What does a guy like Rich think about when he's waiting to set a fast lap in fast cars? "Did I really lock my hotel key in my room?!"
We use toy cars to help set up and practice the giant group shot for the magazine cover. Not even joking, that's how we do it.
Road warrior Jacob Kurowicki cheeses for the camera after forcefully declaring, "Cars are more exciting on two wheels, damn it!"
Editor-in-chief Tony Quiroga's first Lightning Lap was in 2008. Then, he set a time in a Chevrolet Cobalt SS. Today, he's helping a new driver get up to speed around VIR's daunting road course.
Towers of Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS tires waiting to be scrubbed beneath the 5319-pound Lucid Air Sapphire.
There are 24 turns to tackle within VIR's Grand Course layout. They lay within five sectors and have names like NASCAR Bend, Climbing Esses, Oak Tree, Bitch, and Roller Coaster. Getting a car through each of these without a mistake can be nerve-racking.
These frenemies shared a rented generator and DC fast-charger to keep topped up on energy. The Lucid Air Sapphire would later set a time that put it into the all-time top 10. The Porsche Taycan Turbo GT would slice 13.4 seconds off the last Taycan we ran here.
Vehicle testing director Dave VanderWerp, chatting up the Porsche team about attacking VIR—er, about when to pull the right paddle to unleash the Taycan Turbo GT's 10-second blast of 937 horsepower.
Drivers go out. Drivers burn rubber. Drivers come in. Drivers pore over track data to pinpoint where they must drive faster.
Tire warmers tell you just how badly Porsche wanted a good lap time out of what's likely the last gas-powered Cayman.
From left to right: 9000-rpm redline, 937 horsepower, 937 horsepower again.
What a 205/45R-17 tire from a Mazda MX-5 Miata Club looks like against the 345/30ZRF-21 rear artillery from a Lamborghini Revuelto.
The Cayman 718 GT4 RS MR reached 1.23 g's through Turn 1. Checking in on tire pressures is key to maintaining wildly sticky grip around VIR.
David Beard's live reaction after being told there were no more grilled-cheese sandwiches.
Another beautiful year of Lightning Lap is in the books!
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