Randy Franklin Pobst (born June 26, 1957, in Dayton, Ohio), also known as "RFP" or "The Rocket," is an American race car driver and journalist for Motor Trend magazine.
Active in the SCCA World Challenge GT series and the Grand American series' GT class, Pobst was the 2003, 2007, 2008, and 2010 SCCA World Challenge GT champion, the 1996 North American Touring Car Championship title winner, and the 2005, 2006 and 2007 SCCA World Challenge TC vice-champion. He is also a two-time class winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona, in 2001 and 2006.
Randy Pobst has more than 90 pro wins. He is currently a Mazda, Volvo, Audi and Porsche factory supported driver.
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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."