All of you criticizers have to realize that your view isn't the only one out there on the market and some people just don’t care about certain things when buying a car. If their world of owning a car is just based off of numbers, then hey, that's their world, that's what they know, and they are content with that. While others may use their cars on a track day event, others will not. Have an open mind, and try to understand why manufacturers say what they do, and do what they do. And don't be pissed when someone else does it first.

Shame on your overly biased and hypocritical contradicting article. Especially speaking of having to come to a death on a track to realize something. That's disgusting, and you should know better than to speak like that. I pray that never happens.

This article was a waste of my time, and I was unfortunate to have read it because my car enthusiast friend posted it on a social network.
And in turn, I hope I have wasted your time in reading my comment because I'm sure you'd disagree with most of it.

Happy and safe motoring to all!

Truth be told, it is used as 2 things in my eyes: Bragging rights (yes this is true and obvious) and then a general idea of what the car is capable of (which is what I look at, and 'hopefully' most).
I honestly don't think the 911T or GTR is better than one another, in fact, out of sheer principal, I'd rather buy the GTR because of all of the boiling blood that Porsche and Porsche fans have. Too much pride will kill you, even on the track. I have no bias towards either of the cars, never have. I am a car enthusiast, and any enthusiast has no bias. If you are a Porsche enthusiast, then stick to your Porsches and stop talking about anything else. Because once you do, you become a Brand enthusiast.

As for the marketing comments, again, I couldn't agree more. It just bothers me that once a company jumps in and starts testing their cars on a track that others test on, and use their numbers for different reasons, all of the sudden Porsche gets hot and bothered because the other company is matching performance but beating the price. To some people, that’s all they need to hear, they don't care about driving comfort.

I believe that these testers/tuners/racers are fully aware of this, and try their best to race on a day that will give them close to the best track conditions, along with the best driver they can find, as well as trickery. (which I'd bet goes on everywhere in the racing world weather we like it or not)

Nordschleife lap times should never be taken personally down to the second. As many have said, there are just too many variables. If one car produces a better lap time by one second… In my eyes, they can produce damn near the same time. Only a long endurance test will really show the better vehicle at that point.

So with that said, if a car repeatedly reports a lap time quicker than another’s by a margin of 10-30 seconds, obviously that test of time in endurance will be a huge gap.

Now I'm sure the market doesn't buy cars with the mentality of "If I buy this car, it will save me this many seconds every trip to the grocery store, and driving my kids to soccor practice" in mind to save time in their life.

KyHurst has said exactly what was on my mind as I finished reading this article.
I need not say too much more, so I will try my best to not repeat anything KyHurst said unless necessary. But I feel like putting my two cents in, since stomaching things isn't healthy. (So I'm glad Jack let it off his chest, and I'm sure he was prepared for the criticism that will follow)

In the end, Jack Baruth is an upset Porsche fan.

I think common sense would tell anyone that the longer a track is, the more that variables vary the lap times. Even between different cars, such as weight distribution, power plant and drivetrain.
But given the variable buffer of Nordschleife.. (of my guess of about 30 seconds to 1 minute depending on the car and conditions) any car to do anything near 8 minutes or even 7 is just an all around awesome car. So if track conditions are mediocre, and the driver isn't at his/her best, and an 8 minute laptime is achieved… you can safely say that worse conditions can give you an 8:30 or better conditions can give you a 7:30. (roughly speaking)