From the March/April 2026 issue of Car and Driver.
With no mysophobia in our medical history, we're not usually thinking about how every railing, doorknob, or shared test car carries germs that could potentially make a person sick. But about three weeks before our annual Lightning Lap event, staffers tend to hold their breath after someone sneezes and take a lot more meetings from their desks. No one wants to call in sick during Lightning Lap week.
For three days every year, we lap the newest performance models around Virginia International Raceway (VIR) to tell you what it's like to put cars through the limits of acceleration, braking, and handling. The rules are simple: We lap fully homologated production cars running recommended fuel and original-equipment tires. The feels we get behind the wheel are, at times, as big as the 4.1-mile Grand Course configuration we've used since the test began in 2006. Over 19 Lightning Lap events, we've recorded laps in 357 street vehicles. Click here to find out how your turbocharged Chevy Cobalt SS stacks up against the other 356 test cars.
The lap time is only part of the story. Where, why, and what a car does to get that number helps us understand its strengths and weaknesses. And the 24 turns of the Grand Course will expose those weaknesses. The only type of corner it doesn't have is an easy one.
We group the cars into categories by price—LL1, LL2, and so forth—because a Volkswagen Golf R shouldn't be compared to a BMW M5 Touring, even if both have a liftgate, all-wheel drive, and a turbocharged engine thirsty for premium.
Read More About How We Attack VIR
Each year, we request everything that's new or significantly changed. But not every manufacturer likes the possibility of being the second or third tenor on the billing, especially when, in this year's case, Pavarotti and Domingo were already booked, in the form of the 1064-hp Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and Ford's homologated racer, the Mustang GTD. Unfortunately, at the eleventh hour, we learned that the GTD earmarked for us was damaged and couldn't make it. Maybe next year.
Lamborghini had no such worry, and when its 10,000-rpm Temerario showed up with a cracked windshield, the only other one in the country appeared in the paddock in a matter of hours. Porsche, seemingly always game for spirited competition, brought the mildly updated 911 GT3, this time with a manual transmission, and its first roadgoing hybrid 911, the Carrera GTS. Audi sent us the 621-hp station wagon called the RS6, plus two other cars, the five-cylinder RS3 and the much-quieter 912-hp RS e-tron GT electric.
Two other electrics made the bill, the 1020-hp Tesla Model S Plaid and the half-as-powerful Tesla Model 3 Performance. When we lapped a Model S in 2016, it didn't have the stamina to perform for an entire lap, but this Model S is designed to survive a track like VIR. A refreshed GTI and Golf R got an invite, as did the sublime Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. BMW sent an M5 wagon, an M2 CS, and a pro racer, Laura Hayes, to do some coaching. Toyota brought the automatic version of the riotous GR Corolla, and Mercedes-AMG had its 603-hp GT63 Pro on hand. And a few more surprises.
We can all breathe freely now. Let's get to it.
The Contenders
This year, we ran 16 of the newest street-legal performance cars, the boss's (not Springsteen's) 1995 Porsche 911, and a Lamborghini spec racer. We group the new cars by base price, which here includes performance-enhancing options needed to re-create our lap time. And the best lap time we list for each vehicle on the following pages is just that: the quickest one we were able to record from start to finish. No cut-and-paste here.
*Base prices include performance-enhancing options.
Volkswagen Golf GTI
Base Price: $42,105
As Tested Price: $42,750
Power and Weight: 241 hp • 3285 lb • 13.6 lb/hp
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Toyota GR Corolla
Base Price: $43,075
As Tested Price: $50,504
Power and Weight: 300 hp • 3339 lb • 11.1 lb/hp
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Volkswagen Golf R
Base Price: $52,120
As Tested Price: $52,416
Power and Weight: 328 hp • 3369 lb • 10.3 lb/hp
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Audi RS3
Base Price: $71,295
As Tested Price: $77,640
Power and Weight: 394 hp • 3625 lb • 9.2 lb/hp
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Tesla Model 3 Performance
Base Price: $56,630
As Tested Price: $64,630
Power and Weight: 510 hp • 4035 lb • 7.9 lb/hp
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Audi RS6 Avant Performance
Base Price: $144,295
As Tested Price: $158,865
Power and Weight: 621 hp • 4846 lb • 7.8 lb/hp
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BMW M5 Touring
Base Price: $137,175
As Tested Price: $145,775
Power and Weight: 717 hp • 5477 lb • 7.6 lb/hp
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Audi RS e-tron GT
Base Price: $181,795
As Tested Price: $189,595
Power and Weight: 912 hp • 5170 lb • 5.7 lb/hp
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BMW M2 CS
Base Price: $108,275
As Tested Price: $108,275
Power and Weight: 523 hp • 3729 lb • 7.1 lb/hp
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Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing
Base Price: $141,050
As Tested Price: $150,365
Power and Weight: 668 hp • 4143 lb • 6.2 lb/hp
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Mercedes-AMG GT63 Pro
Base Price: $199,650
As Tested Price: $211,660
Power and Weight: 603 hp • 4268 lb • 7.1 lb/hp
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Porsche 911 Carrera GTS
Base Price: $204,206
As Tested Price: $222,606
Power and Weight: 532 hp • 3588 lb • 6.7 lb/hp
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Porsche 911 GT3
Base Price: $261,307
As Tested Price: $274,857
Power and Weight: 502 hp • 3218 lb • 6.4 lb/hp
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Tesla Model S Plaid
Base Price: $135,630
As Tested Price: $144,630
Power and Weight: 1020 hp • 4804 lb • 4.7 lb/hp
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Lamborghini Temerario
Base Price: $440,367
As Tested Price: $585,954
Power and Weight: 907 hp • 4200 lb • 4.6 lb/hp
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Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
Base Price: $216,380
As Tested Price: $238,695
Power and Weight: 1064 hp • 3899 lb • 3.7 lb/hp
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1995 Porsche 911 Carrera
Base Price: $66,263
As Tested Price: $66,775
Power and Weight: 270 hp • 3035 lb • 11.2 lb/hp
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Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2
Base Price: $360,000
As Tested Price: $360,000
Power and Weight: 612 hp • 2950 lb (C/D est) • 4.8 lb/hp
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Behind the Scenes
Take a closer look at the team and machines that orchestrate our annual track test at Virginia International Raceway.
K.C. Colwell, the executive editor at Car and Driver, is a seasoned professional with a deep-rooted passion for new cars and technology. His journey into the world of automotive journalism began at an early age when his grandmother gifted him a subscription to Car and Driver for his 10th birthday. This gift sparked a lifelong love for the industry, and he read every issue between then and his first day of employment. He started his Car and Driver career as a technical assistant in the fall of 2004. In 2007, he was promoted to assistant technical editor. In addition to testing, evaluating, and writing about cars, technology, and tires, K.C. also set the production-car lap record at Virginia International Raceway for C/D's annual Lightning Lap track test and was just the sixth person to drive the Hendrick Motorsport Garage 56 Camaro. In 2017, he took over as testing director until 2022, when was promoted to executive editor and has led the brand to be one of the top automotive magazines in the country. When he’s not thinking about cars, he likes playing hockey in the winter and golf in the summer and doing his best to pass his good car sense and love of '90s German sedans to his daughter. He might be the only Car and Driver editor to own a Bobcat: the skidsteer, not the feline. Though, if you have a bobcat guy, reach out. K.C. resides in Chelsea, Michigan, with his family.
Dave VanderWerp has spent more than 20 years in the automotive industry, in varied roles from engineering to product consulting, and now leading Car and Driver's vehicle-testing efforts. Dave got his very lucky start at C/D by happening to submit an unsolicited resume at just the right time to land a part-time road warrior job when he was a student at the University of Michigan, where he immediately became enthralled with the world of automotive journalism.
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