I think most of us would find it hard to replicate the times the journo's pull when testing. Having been fortunate to be on two road-tests, none of the non-journo's could pull times matching the journo's.

For example, when Motor compared the Type S versus DC5R versus DC2R, non of the car owners could match the times the Motor drivers pulled. The journo's really punish the cars trying to get the best times and they keep at it until they are sure that's as fast as it will go.

Most car journo's are good drivers. Anybody seen the video of Dean Evans driving the Lotus at Bathurst?

Personally 7.8 seems right to me, it's 165kg heavier than a DC5R. Slightly lower gearing and slightly more torque simply cannot make that up.