Tony Quiroga is a professional automotive journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Car and Driver magazine with 34 recorded laps across 32 vehicles on LapMeta—nearly one-to-one ratio characteristic of professional systematic vehicle testing. Appointed editor-in-chief in February 2022, Quiroga is a 20-year Car and Driver veteran who moved from Automobile Magazine to associate editor in 2004, holding nearly every editorial position in print and digital while helping produce early YouTube efforts. Remarkably, he is the longest-tenured test driver for Car and Driver's annual Lightning Lap event, having lapped Virginia International Raceway's Grand Course over 2000 times across 12 years.
His automotive journalism career began at age six when he saw a still-secret Corvette on Car and Driver's cover while grocery shopping with his mother in West Bloomfield in June 1981, subscribing ever since. His LapMeta data shows all 34 laps concentrated at Grand West Course—VIR's configuration used for Lightning Lap standardized testing methodology. This extraordinary venue focus reflects professional systematic approach: testing diverse vehicles at identical circuit enabling objective comparative analysis informing millions of readers annually. The 32-vehicle portfolio represents comprehensive automotive exposure spanning performance cars, supercars, and exotic machinery. With 34 laps across 32 vehicles all at VIR Grand West Course and over 2000 career Lightning Lap laps, Tony Quiroga exemplifies the professional automotive journalist whose lifetime passion and systematic testing expertise position Car and Driver as America's authoritative performance vehicle evaluation resource.
See Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap 2022 feature and all the lap times here: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a38955362/lightning-lap-2022/
Tony Quiroga and Carlos Lago talk about Tony's experience driving at this year's Lighting Lap. This year, Tony set the lap times for the 2020 Audi RS Q8, 2021 BMW X5 M Competition, 2022 BMW M3 Competition xDrive, and 2022 BMW M5 CS.
Read more:
2020 Audi RS Q8: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a38965998/2020-audi-rs-q8-lightning-lap/
2021 BMW X5 M Competition: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a38966023/2022-bmw-x5-m-competition-lightning-lap/
2022 BMW M3 Competition xDrive: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a38966040/2022-bmw-m3-competition-xdrive-lightning-lap/
2022 BMW M5 CS: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a38966066/2022-bmw-m5-cs-lightning-lap/
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00:00 Intro
01:30 Audi RS Q8
05:31 BMW X5 M Competition
09:33 BMW M3 Competition xDrive
13:20 BMW M5 CS