This Week's Track Battle: A Grudge Match Between Two Nurur Ring Lap Record Holders

This week's track battle is a grudge match between two nurur ring lap record holders, Seat's new Logan Cooper 280 and Renault Sports Manan 265. As we'll be looking for fun as well as an ultimate lap time, let's see how these two rivals compare at the West circuit right. So, we're in the logan cpra and this is a really big surprise - this car impressed us hugely on our recent hot hatch Extravaganza in issue or two ago of the magazine.

It's just kind of come from nowhere really, I think SE did have a rep reputation for good fast fun hot hatches and then they kind of went off the boil and then news of this filtered out that it had set a new front-wheel drive lap record around the nurur ring of under 8 minutes and anything under 8 minutes around that place is pretty impressive. Whilst there's some debate about quite how close to production the lap record setting car is, nevertheless that doesn't detract from a really super impressive car already on the track here.

There nothing compared to nururging but still it gives you a real sense of connection and grip and aggression but there's composure as well - so there's some depth to what the car can do. These initial laps are always where we're supposed to see how much fun the car is, so if you Chuck it at a corner, it's quite a lot of fun and that's maybe not what you'd expect from a from a VW group car - they're normally very composed and effective but inherently quite straight laced.

This thing it's got all that composure and depth and quality but really does like to be chucked around so you could have a lot of fun in this car on a track day and yet it would be great on the drive home which is a really nice combination of qualities. The brakes feel great and strong and progressive - the chassis's got plenty of grip and you can feel it, you can feel it working quite hard ultimately the SCC still kind of saves you from the most extreme inputs but it lets the car go a long way before it intervenes.

Certainly on the quick corners and that's where the fun is. Okay so attempting though it is to mock around we now need to see how fast this cpra will go! It feels strong, we're well over 100 mph into this first corner - the DSG Box gives you some nice quick shifts. The traction is really clean, it just finds drive that puts all its power onto walk to the road - it's very tidy for a front-wheel drive car with just under 280 horsepower again over 100 mph breaking hard into this chicane, little bit Scruffy from me but this is normally this bottom heav is normally the bit that a front-wheel drive car hates.

But again it can really chase the throttle. I've got Full Throttle before the corner exit there another big braking area - the front end is so good on this car just into four is so nice you can just neutralize the car and a little bit of over steer last Corner very easy to overdo it, cross the line now.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis week's track battle is a grudge match between two nurur ring laap record holders seat's new Lon kooper 280 and Renault Sports Manan 265 cup as ever we'll be looking for fun as well as an ultimate lap time so let's see how these two ring Rivals compare at bed Auto drone with West circuit right so we're in the lon cpra and this is a really big surprise this car it impressed us hugely on our recent hot hatch Extravaganza in uh an issue or two ago of the magazine and it's just kind of come from nowhere really I think SE did have a rep reputation for good fast fun hot hatches and then they kind of went off the boil and then news of this filtered out that it had set a new front-wheel drive lap record around the nurburg Ring of under 8 minutes and anything under 8 minutes around that place is pretty impressive and whilst there's some debate about quite how close to production the lap record setting car is nevertheless that doesn't detract from a really super impressive car already on the on the track here there nothing compared to nurburging but still it gives you a real sense of connection and grip and aggression but there's composure as well so there's some depth to what the car can do these initial laps are always where we're supposed to see how much fun the car is so if you Chuck it at a corner it's quite a lot of fun and that's maybe not what you'd expect from a from a VW group car they're normally very composed and effective but inherently quite straight laced this thing it's got all that composure and depth and quality but it really does like to be chucked around so you could have a lot of fun in this car on a track day and yet it would be great on the drive home which is a really nice combination of qualities the brakes feel great and strong and Progressive the chassis's got plenty of grp and you can feel it you can feel it working quite hard ultimately the SCC still kind of saves you from the most extreme inputs but it lets the car go a long way before it intervenes certainly on the quick corners and that's where the fun is one SC okay so attempting though it is to mock around we now need to see how fast this cpra will go it feels strong we're well over 100 mph into this first Corner the DSG Box gives you some nice quick shifts the traction is really clean it just finds drive that puts all its power onto walk to the road it's very tidy for a front-wheel drive car with just under 280 horsepower again over 100 mph breaking hard into this chicane little bit Scruffy from me but this is normally this bottom heav is normally the bit that a front-wheel drive car hates but again it can really chase the throttle I've got Full Throttle before the corner exit there another big breaking area again good traction now these are the fast Corners it's got really good turning and lots of mid Corner Bri far corner to where this car seems to excel what the clock says I don't know making great use of its abundant power torque and traction the Layon puts in a very strong performance stopping the clock at 1 minute 28 dead the Manan will need to be on top form to beat this what from the current front wheel Drive record holder at the nurur ring to the former record holder at the nurur ring in the mean Rena sport 265 this is quite an old school car particularly compared to the to the Layon it's been around a while but God it's good it's such a good car I know we always bang on about this car at Evo but it's with very good reason because everything about it is so well honed just the the feel within the first few seconds of getting in the car it just feels sharp as attack the damping is pretty aggressive I mean even on track it starts hopping around a bit obviously it's got a manual box it's a little bit down on power compared to the say probably 15 horsepower or so surprisingly or least to me it's up on torque about 7t lb and there's very little in it in weight 10 10 15 kilos maybe but in the way this drives it just you can just throw it at corners and it's so aggressive and Mobile in in the way you can play with the rear end of the car it means you have to be on the board when you do it but it opens up another dimension of handling and fun which is what we always try and bear in mind with these track battles as well as outright lap time it just totally hooks you in this car in the same way as a 9911 GT3 or an M3 CSL or any of those great driver's cars it might be front-wheel drive but it has the same heart and The Same Spirit as those great cars no you're not going to go tail sliding around every corner like a rear wheel drive car but as front wheeel drive cars go on track this already still feels like The Benchmark to me in terms of absolute handling Purity and dynamism but it'll be really interesting to see what kind of a lap time it does compared to the seak the seak can't do that though can it right okay focus focus nice clean fast lap get the best from this m right okay then cross the line hard braking Into The Hairpin brakes feel brilliant actually stronger and sharper than the say traction isn't quite as good though I would say up into fourth it loves the direction changes though and it really clings on through full throtl in third up into fourth out onto the shortish straight getting hard breaking but it really likes to be worked hard and it's still happy to change direction into this fiddly hair pin a second balance the power you can hear that wheel speed but it's still driving forwards another big braking area the front end is so good on this car just into four is so nice you can just neutralize the car and a little bit of over steer last Corner very easy to overdo it cross the line now the 265 cup has long been our front drive Benchmark and this lap is a timely reminder why sharper and Keener yet much more entertaining it's a natural on track performer beating the lay on by 7/10 of a second with a great time of 1 minute 27.3 contrary to se's claimed ring record for the Layon on the evidence of these laps the Manan Remains the front-wheel drive King if you want to see more Evo track battles make sure you subscribe to the channel what oh\n"