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Spyderidol said:
Yes, but there is a difference!
When you claim product "A" is better (faster) than product "B" (and you actually name the competitor product)you had better be sure that what you are claiming is true (or at least can be shown to be the case) because if not, you might land up with a legal battle on your hands!
If you think people are going to start dragging one another into court over NBR times, you're possibly taking it all a bit too seriously. Sure it's fun to compare the times and spar with one another about who's best, but let's not make a Federal case out of it.
The cars we like to talk about all get lap times around the NBR that are within a few percentage points of one another. Fine. But those kinds of differences could easily be accounted for by the many variables that can affect any given performance. Air temp, track temp, track condidion, track cleanliness, humidity, vehicle load (fuel, accessories, carpets, seat types, etc), tyres (type, wear, pressures), engine wear and condition, wind direction, wind speed, etc. etc. Then there's driver aids and settings to say nothing of driver skill, preparation, physical condition and whether or not he's off his game because he didn't get one with the girlfriend the night before.
Any statistically valid scientific comparison will try to control for as many of these kinds of variables as possible. If you want to compare times, track both cars on the same day, same time, same driver. Do say 10 laps each, 2 at a time, each car taking turns. Make sure they're thoroughly and independently scrutineered. Then take all the data and look at the mean lap times and the standard deviations. Apply a t test or some other statistically valid analysis. If there's a difference at p = .05 or better then maybe you have something worth talking about. However any statistician will tell you that you still have a 1 in 20 chance of drawing the wrong conclusions.
Sure the numbers are of interest, but as a valid means of comparing cars with similar performance, theyr're about as serious as the tooth fairy.
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