LF/P1/918 tire choice: Why does it even matter? Has anyone seen the rest of the cars?

Why are so many looking at these cars as big, constant hunks of metal on 4 unique tires? The tires aren't comparable in the latest test, you say? Well, you're in for a shocker when you pop the hood and look at the rest of the car...

Trofeo/Corsas vs Cup 2 vs (I forget what LF uses)
AWD vs RWD
968hp vs 903hp vs 887hp
Big wing vs small wing
E-diff vs brake steer
Heavy vs heavier vs heaviest
Rear wheel steering vs ...?
Torque vectoring vs...?
NA vs NA vs TT
to name a few...

How on Earth can people make a fuss about P1 having stickier tires but not point out that the 918 has AWD or a million of the other difference between them? They aren't just a constant + 4 tires. They are a sum of their parts, very unique ones in fact, and as it stands now, the P1 has optional Trofeo parts that the 918 does not. 918 will never have Trofeos either, just like the P1 will never have Cups.

These cars would never in a million years be in the same class/race. Nothing about them is comparable. The abide by no rules except safety and emissions. One uses better tires, one uses AWD, one uses more power, one uses more torque, one uses this active aero, one uses that active aero, and the list goes on.

If at the end of the day you want to know which is faster on a given track, you put the car in whatever mode it can be in and give it whatever options it has. In the case of the 918, you put the car in X mode (I'm not sure which,) and install the Weissachs package. In the case of the P1 you put it in Race Mode and install the Trofeo tires. And yes, you can order the Trofeos from the factory just like you can the WP. It's just an option that makes it go quicker...

 

Is there an ignore feature on this board? This guy ranks just above modena.

 

That's not really my point.

The point is that saying a tire advantage is unfair is no different than saying an AWD advantage is unfair. While disposable, it's obvious you can't just swap out the tires because otherwise they'd just put them both on the same tires -- Cups on the P1 or Trofeo on the 918. Are Corsas identical to the Cups? Of course they're not. I doubt the Trofeos are identical to whatever Porsche comes out with as well.

The cars are trying to accomplish the same thing through completely different means, with no restrictions on anything, and as such there is no sense of "fairness." It's why motorsport doesn't just let you show up with anything you want.

All you can do is compare the times since it's impossible to quantify the differences on a mechanical level. The playing field is anything but level even before considering tires. You might as well compare them to a Speciale and 12C, and ponder what difference AWD, electric motors, and 300hp makes. Speciale was 1.8s behind the 918. What would it be with 300hp extra?

As it stands right now, you can make a P1 go faster on this track than a 918. It doesn't make sense to talk about advantages of something like tires and to ignore how massively different the cars are underneath the skin. You can't say AWD is worth 2s, P1 aero is worth 1.5s, RW steering is worth .5s, P1 weight is worth 1s, 918 torque is worth 1s, P1 power is worth .75s... etc.

If you want to look at it as an entire package, that's fine. You can say it's more impressive to be 1.2s behind on Cups with the top off than it is to be 1.2s ahead on Trofeos. If you just want to be the fastest possible for a lap, well, then all that matters is the time.

 

This isn't a race. These tests are analogous to qualifying. When has a magazine ever conducted a 1-2 hour session to find average speed/lap times of cars?

As it stands now, Porsche doesn't have any other tires for it. It would be like Mercedes doing qualifying with normal tires and claiming they should start up front because they can't run softer tires. We don't go re-ordering the results just because someone is on better tires. Hell, even in motorsport running the right tires in the given conditions can be the difference between winning and losing.

If the 918 never gets comparable tires, then what? Is the P1 officially quicker on this circuit?

 

I think they could as well actually, unless there is some issue of too much grip that the car doesn't like for some reason. It's not like Cup 2s stay Cup 2s. The car doesn't suddenly break because the tires have worn down, weigh less, and have different grip levels than they did when they were new.

Whether the make any that fit is another story. IIRC, running Trofeo Rs on a 12C cause the tire to run and destroy the wheel liner under certain circumstance, even though they technically fit on the car.

 

Regardless of what they are called and rated by the manufacturer, they are no doubt different. It's like a Speciale vs a GT3 RS -- both are the track day versions, but that doesn't really make them comparable. No one can really comment on the specifics behind these tires because no one really knows and they are all custom to the cars. The tires on these cars, in theory, should be different than the same version you'd buy off the shelf.

The only thing people know or agree on is that in terms of grip, it's probably Trofeo > Cups > Corsas. Cups and Corsa are thought to be similar, though obviously they could differ in performance by a decent amount.

These cars are optimized to run certain tires and compounds, so while you probably could just throw Trofeos or Corsas on a 918 and Cups on a P1, it's possible that you're still losing something from tires being out of spec for the electronics. Unless you're willing to do that though, you'll never really know for certain how they all compare.