Randy Franklin Pobst, known as "RFP" or "The Rocket," is an American professional racing driver and automotive journalist with more than 90 professional wins across multiple racing series. As Motor Trend magazine's primary test driver, Pobst has become America's answer to Europe's test driver legends, setting track records and providing authoritative performance evaluations for over two decades. With 114 recorded laps across 94 vehicles on LapMeta, his data represents a comprehensive survey of modern performance car capabilities.
Pobst's racing pedigree is exceptional: he won the SCCA World Challenge GT championship in 2003, 2007, 2008, and 2010, captured the 1996 North American Touring Car Championship, and was vice-champion in SCCA World Challenge TC for 2005, 2006, and 2007. He is also a two-time class winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona (2001 and 2006). This extensive racing background provides him with the skill set necessary to extract maximum performance from any vehicle he tests.
His Motor Trend work focuses heavily on Virginia International Raceway, where he has recorded 62 laps on the Pre-2023 configuration and 27 on Big Willow. Pobst holds the production car lap record at VIR's Grand Course, set in the 2019 McLaren Senna—a time that no one, in any street or race car, has beaten. His notable achievements include lapping Laguna Seca in the 2016 Dodge Viper ACR in 1:28.65, faster than the Porsche 918 Spyder hybrid supercar, and breaking Road Atlanta's track record in the 2019 Corvette ZR1.
Beyond raw lap times, Pobst hosts "The Racing Line" on the MotorTrend YouTube channel, where he educates enthusiasts on racing fundamentals. His ability to communicate complex driving concepts in accessible terms, combined with his empirical lap time data, makes him invaluable to both manufacturers seeking validation and consumers making purchasing decisions. Randy Pobst represents the intersection of elite racing skill and journalistic integrity.
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For the full ICONs review of the GT500 click here: https://youtu.be/mcQWMHYCrO8
Onboard POV of Randy Pobst, SCCA Hall-of-Fame race car driver, lap Chuckwalla Valley Raceway in a 2020 Ford Mustang GT500 CFTP against a 2019 Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
LAP BREAKDOWN BY JASON CAMMISA
Information taken from VBox GPS data.
Because these are flying laps, the faster GT500 has a big advantage right away - it starts its lap at 118 mph versus the Porsche’s 112. The speed differential and distance grow from there, so the Porsche is 20 feet behind by the time the two cars get to the first turn.
The Porsche carries 2 mph more through the corner, but that’s not enough, and the Mustang continues to pull away during all of the subsequent high speed corners. In the long, left-hand Turn 5, the Mustang handily outgrips the 911 with an average lateral acceleration of 1.16g to the Porsche’s 1.12g… and its advantage keeps growing.
By the time the cars get to turn 8, the Mustang’s lead is over a half-second and 70 feet.
That’s when Chuckwalla turns technical.
On the off-camber, downhill, tricky 8-9-10 combo, the much-lighter 911 makes up more than half of its deficit, getting to within a car length of the Mustang… but then it falls back as the cars accelerate up the hill. The Mustang hits 124 mph; the 911 just 121.
But the Porsche outbrakes the Shelby at the end of the straight, and the two cars enter the highly cambered bowl at almost exactly the same speed: 99 for the Porsche, 100 for the Mustang.
What happens next is the stuff 911 lore is made of. The GT3 RS pulls a heroic 2.26 peak Gs — compared to the Mustang’s 1.84, and by the exit of the bowl, the Ford’s advantage evaporates… and the 911, putting all its power down, takes the lead for the first time on the exit of Turn 14
The advantage doesn’t last long, as the Mustang accelerates it, and the Mustang passes the 911 once again on the small straight between 15 and 16.
And then the Porsche’s light weight and rear-biased distribution move in for the kill — it passes the Mustang once again on the way out of the tight decreasing-radius last corner, putting its power down easier…
With its advantage shrinking quickly, it finishes its lap just 0.15 second ahead of the Mustang.
Final Chuckwalla Lap Times:
2019 Porsche 991.2 911 GT3 RS Laptime: 1 minute, 55.57 seconds
2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Laptime: 1 minute, 55.72 seconds
Just 0.15 seconds separate these two cars.
And of those nearly 2 minutes, the 911 was in front for less than 16 seconds and only two turns. Unbelievable.
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For the record, there's a fuel-gauge glitch on the preproduction GT500s that Ford gave us for this video. Both it and the GT3 RS were filled with 91-octane pump gas from the same pump (at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway) and sent out for lapping. Randy's first lap in each car was his fastest, as is typical. The "25 miles to empty" warning that appears on the instrument cluster was not correct, nor was the fuel level that appeared on the gauge.
Both cars are stock with the exception of half-cages in the rear, and are on brand-new, stock, OEM tires.
This video is a supplement to the full video review of the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Carbon Fiber Track Package. Please visit ISSIMI’s YouTube page and look for the video under "Jason Cammisa on the Icons."