QOTD: Do Ring Times Matter?
We've covered the Honda Civic Type R's Nurburgring time twice already because we find it pretty interesting to see what a FWD sports car can do.
That said, we also know that manufacturers love to tout the 'Ring times whenever they can.
We're wondering, do you care?
My guess is that some of you do -- it can be bragging rights for owners of certain models, and it can make for fun trash-talking conversations. But I also suspect the majority of consumers, and many enthusiasts, don't.
Personally, I care to an extent -- as I said, I find it interesting, especially in the case of a car like the Civic Type R. That's why we ran two stories on it -- it's a fun topic. That said, when it comes to the Type R -- or any performance car -- I focus more on other aspects of performance. In other words, the 'Ring time is a nice feather in the car's cap, but not my main determining factor if I was comparing the car to its competition or thinking of buying one.
How about you? How much do you care, if you care at all?
Sound off below.
[Image: Honda]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Comments
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I'm old.
I may have cared at one time - but that time is past.
I just want a comfortable, fast and elegant vehicle that is reasonably economical, works properly all the time, and isn't a boring greyscale SUV or Truck.
Oh, I am sure ring times are extremely important in this cheap econobox category.
The other day at the Toyota dealer there was a lil old lady who wanted to buy a Corolla. She test drove it, and inspected it, and was quite happy with everything, she told the salesman. "But before I buy it, I really need to know, said the granma. "What is its Ring Time? Because my grandson who spends his entire day on that stupid Website, "TTAC", tells me he saw at least three articles and one hundred comments on the Civic getting a really good ring time! And you know the other old lady across the street drives a Civic!"
As BEVs take over the top spots for 'Ring times, legacy ICE brands will retreat from this metric and focus on more experiential descriptions. They've already given up on 0-60 times, which before Tesla were their bread and butter.
I'm not rich enough to be allowed on the Nurimburgring at my skill level, so the ring time doesn't really matter to me. [Shrug]