I've tested nearly everything at Zandvort now.
Hesketh and privateer type teams (Surtees/Parnelli/March/Penkse( I really dislike the Penske from the quick go I had at Silverstone - it's handling was the opposite to my style so was dog-slow, It's probably even slower at Zandy although I've learnt a bit more about setting the cars up to suit me since)) in that order are all doing
1:37.5 and above.
Next up I had the BRM/Ferrari/Tyrrell P34 in that order, They were between
1:37.3 and .5 (BRM easily fastest, that got the .3 time within 2 laps and the setup was shockingly bad. If I worked on it to make the car easier it would probably match the fast group here).
The fastest were the Tyrrell 007/Lotus/McLaren/Williams - in that order - with times from
1:36.8ish to 1:37.1. The McLaren doesn't quite suit me so might be faster for other people. The Tyrrell and Lotus were an absolute joy once I had adjusted to them, with the Lotus being slightly harder to drive on the limit.
I'm Missing a few here - I have had a quick go in the Brabham on stock setup at Silverstone and it was already faster than I managed in the Surtees even after spending time on the setup. Although it did require driving in a very specific fashion - this might just be the stock setup of course.
The Embassy/Hill might be a very fast member of the slow group or even squeek into the Middle one, dependant on driving characteristics, I'll hopefully get to it this weekend.
I'm kind of expecting the Fittipaldi to be in the slow group, but may be pleasantly surprised when I try it.
Shadow is probably middle group, although it think it has the 'fast' DFV and was meant to handle well in the day - so could be in the fast group - again, that's one I want to try at the weekend.
All of these are based on my driving style and setups, with Hard tires and 60Ltrs of fuel.
Your own times
will differ due to the way some cars mesh with certain styles and others don't. Fabri and I have already learnt in series we do elsewhere that there's very little we can get from one another's setups as we drive so differently - I think these cars will actually exaggerate that trend and should even the field a bit.
Based on qually/race in the 2 fun events so far Hards Vs Softs are worth a second or so a lap, but can only be driven on the limit for a lap or 3 before they become so hot they drop to lap times similar to the hards. Given that they tail off after 25 mins or so you need to be very sure you want them and can hold off your competitors
For example - my actual fastest lap at Zandy in the Hesketh is a 1:35.9 in Qually, playing a 1:37.3 some 10 laps into the (25 lap) race on hards which was matched with increasing frequency as my fuel load continued to drop towards the end.
If you look at Marks' individual lap times you seem him slam 2 fast ones together and matching my early pace at the start followed by a bunch of much slower ones. He never increases beyond the initial fast pace due to the tires becoming sketchier and was actually lapping 2 seconds a lap slower than me by the end because my car was still getting faster while his became harder.
I might be able to get the 308B faster now if some of the tricks I learnt taming the March and P34 can be applied to the Hesketh - I still don't really see it getting out of the Midde group if it can get that fast to begin with though