I do remember Victor once saying that he might add a history of the wrs or something into lfsworld. Not sure if thats still the case.
On topic, i think that from my point of view, basically focused on oval hotlapping, that some cars are having significantly improved, let it be due to the updated setup changes (like the engine moment of inertia or certain other limitations or reductions such as life camber or suspension) and its effects or the tire behaviour (GTRs are a good example and the FO8 is close to half a second faster). On the other hand, with some cars (like the BF1) im still producing the same laptimes even tho i already updated & optimised the setups.
I think since the oval is a track with less interferences by certain factors such as curbs, short cuts at certain areas or heavy/ often weight shifts, its pretty good for an objectively comparation. Not saying that it might as well be able to apply on curcuit tracks while using the same car in both versions with a simular setup since thats a far more complex picture but nevertheless, a specific pattern has become quite visible for me and its giving me an idea about what to expect on curcuit tracks.
Suspension settings in combination with correct camber settings for example are much harder to adjust while at the same time the feeling is not only different but also the settings needed to get the same performance then in patch X are absolutely different. Im not that much of a freak when it comes to the very deep knowledge and so i hope this makes sense in a way.
But yeah i do agree with Forbin, a comparation doesnt really makes sense but only to see how much LFS has evolved within all those years. Preconditioned that the track layout itself has not been changed at some point.
I fail to see how a comparison would tell you anything more than the fact that the physics are different. There's not even any way for the times to tell you how they changed.
In real life times are also beeing compared (F1 for example) while the vehicles are changing every session and so it doesnt really makes sense (from my point of view) to keep the WR of a session that was like 10 years ago or so but it is for the sake of it as well (i guess) or simple to see how the difference really looks like, improved or degraded...
If they are archived somewhere, I hope to see them. And if there nothing to conclude - then let this be my conclusion. Still I´m interested in having a look at it.
I know this is an old thread but since i was wondering the same thing with R.Kolz I decided to post here some pre-Y hotlap times that I still have in replays:
If someone else got some, please post them here if it's not a problem. I also decided not to put any lfsw names on the hotlaps just in case. I'm not 100% sure that all of them were the WR laps..