I drove both of my GR Yaris cars on the same home circuit.
My 2020 6MT recorded 1:53.113.
My 2024 GR-DAT recorded 1:52.318.
The gap was 0.795 seconds.
What interested me was how close those two lap times were.
The cars differ not only in transmission, but also in model year and specification. Even so, my actual lap times in the two cars fell within about 0.71% of each other.
That result gave me a way to think about where my driving stands today.
In this article, I compare the two laps and explain what that 0.795-second gap means to me.
The 2020 6MT Recorded 1:53.113
I drove Car No. 1, my 2020 GR Yaris with the six-speed manual transmission, around my local circuit and recorded 1:53.113.
Car No. 1 has some minor suspension modifications, while the powertrain, brakes, and tires remain stock.
More details are available here:
On another day, I drove Car No. 2, my 2024 GR Yaris equipped with the eight-speed GR-DAT (GAZOO Racing Direct Automatic Transmission), a torque-converter automatic.
It recorded 1:52.318 on the same circuit.
Car No. 2 is completely stock apart from removal of the speed limiter.
Car No. 1 also has its speed limiter removed.
The two actual lap times were:
2024 GR-DAT: 1:52.318
2020 6MT: 1:53.113
The difference was 0.795 seconds, or approximately 0.71% of the faster lap.
The Two Cars Were Running Under Different Conditions
The two lap times were recorded on different days.
Ambient temperature, track temperature, wind, tire condition, fuel load, and my own condition as a driver therefore differed to some degree.
The cars themselves also differ.
Car No. 1 is a pre-facelift 2020 6MT rated at 272 PS and 370 N·m.
Car No. 2 is the facelifted 2024 GR-DAT rated at 304 PS and 400 N·m.
Car No. 2 has more power and torque, along with the rapid shifting of GR-DAT.
In standard specification, Car No. 1 is about 20 kg lighter, and my car also has some suspension modifications.
The 0.795-second gap contains all of these differences in vehicle specification and running conditions.
What the number directly gives me is a real-world observation: the same driver drove two differently configured cars on the same circuit, and the two lap times fell within about 0.71% of each other.
That is the part that interests me.
Putting the Lap Times on a TC2000 Scale
My home circuit is local and relatively little known, so there is not much lap-time data available for comparison.
A lap of 1:53.113 therefore gives many readers little sense of its magnitude.
To provide a more familiar reference, I convert the lap times to a scale based on Tsukuba Circuit TC2000.
Applying each car’s average speed to TC2000’s 2.045 km length gives:
2020 6MT: approximately 1:07.9
2024 GR-DAT: approximately 1:07.4
These are reference-scale values derived solely from average speed and course length, intended to make the magnitude of the lap times easier to understand.
Corner radius, elevation change, braking zones, acceleration zones, and other layout-specific characteristics are outside this calculation.
The method is explained in more detail here:
Lap Times Leave No Room for Theory or Excuses [Japanese]
The Core of Fast Driving Remains the Same
The first reason I can think of for the relatively small gap is that the core elements of fast driving remain largely the same whether I am driving the 6MT or the GR-DAT.
Where to begin braking, how to transfer load, how much lateral grip to use, which line to take, when to begin unwinding the steering, and when to start feeding in the throttle all remain important regardless of the transmission.
When these fundamentals are working, cars with different transmissions can still produce relatively close lap times in the hands of the same driver.
That was the first thing I saw in these two results.
I Still Made Mistakes in the 6MT
There were some obvious driver errors during the 6MT run.
At one point, I intended to downshift from third to second but actually selected fourth.
I also forgot to upshift and hit the rev limiter.
There was no complicated reason for the second mistake.
I was simply zoning out.
In a manual-transmission car, the driver has to choose the appropriate gear, move the shift lever, operate the clutch, and match engine speed to road speed while also managing the car through the corner.
The more tasks the driver has to perform, the more opportunities there are for mistakes.
Some of the time in the 1:53.113 lap was therefore lost through my own errors.
Exactly how much, I cannot say.
GR-DAT Reduces the Driver’s Shifting Workload
With GR-DAT, much of the work involved in choosing the appropriate gear, executing the shift, and matching engine speed to road speed can be left to the car.
In many situations, it does these things faster and more accurately than I can.
That leaves more of the driver’s attention available for managing the car’s behavior.
On a circuit, that matters.
There are also situations where the transmission’s decision and my own anticipation diverge.
The Second Gear I Want and the Third Gear GR-DAT Chooses
There is one section of this circuit where a series of tight corners leads directly into a steep uphill section.
I want second gear selected slightly in advance so that the car is ready for the climb.
But when I accelerate before reaching the hill, GR-DAT sometimes shifts into third.
This can happen in D mode and also in M mode, where an automatic shift may intervene depending on operating conditions.
I then have to select second again immediately before the uphill section.
That point also happens to be the final tight corner in the sequence.
It is a place where I would rather focus on load transfer and rotation.
GR-DAT is choosing a gear from the vehicle speed and engine rpm at that moment.
I am choosing a gear with the steep hill just ahead already in mind.
That difference can make my anticipated gear choice and the transmission’s decision diverge.
It is one of the more interesting characteristics of GR-DAT that became apparent when I started using it on a circuit.
The 6MT Interrupts Power Delivery During Every Shift
There is also a structural difference.
When I depress the clutch to shift in the 6MT, power delivery from the engine to the wheels is interrupted.
I select the next gear, re-engage the clutch, and power delivery resumes.
Each interruption is brief, but it happens repeatedly over the course of a lap.
With GR-DAT, the driver does not disengage a clutch manually, and shifts are completed quickly.
This difference is another element that contributes to lap time.
0.795 Seconds Equals About 24.6 Meters
The average speeds over the 3.5 km circuit were:
2024 GR-DAT: 112.18 km/h
2020 6MT: 111.39 km/h
If both cars started from the same point at exactly the same time, the 2020 6MT would be about 24.60 meters behind when the 2024 GR-DAT completed the lap.
As a racing result, 0.795 seconds is a clear gap.
Viewed as two actual laps by the same driver in cars from different model years, with different transmissions and specifications, the difference is about 0.71%.
Using the TC2000 reference values,
2020 6MT: 1:07.9
2024 GR-DAT: 1:07.4
the corresponding distance at the end of a 2.045 km lap would be approximately 15 meters.
Expressing the difference as distance gives a more intuitive sense of what 0.795 seconds represents.
What 0.795 Seconds Says About Where My Driving Stands
As explained in another article,
My 2020 6MT vs My 2024 8-Speed GR-DAT [Japanese]
I own both of these cars and drive both of them.
That gives this 0.795-second gap a particular meaning for me.
What pleased me most was the sense that the common foundation of the driving skills I have been developing still worked to some extent despite the change in transmission and model year.
For years, I have built experience on public roads and winding roads while staying within the law. I have worked on connecting each control input smoothly, reading what the car is doing, and staying conscious of load transfer.
These two lap times gave me a sense that those habits also carry over to the circuit.
For me, this 0.795-second gap is where my driving stands today.
It gives me a benchmark for what I have built so far—and for what I want to improve from here.
Rikutsu Konetaro’s Lap-Time Record
➡ A Record of How My Circuit Lap Times Have Changed [Japanese]
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