So some ages ago I was digging around in japanese saturn magazines. Great browsing by the way, even if you can't read it they are a fucking VIBE. Multiple groups were putting out almost 200 pages a month of Saturn articles and ads, with a bit less ad radio than I recall from the US magazines I was getting ~10 years later.
Anyway, I remember one of them had some stupid fast times in it. In the course of finding that, I found a very similar article in Saturn Fan magazine (1996 No "1-2", page 63).
This roughly translates to saying a reference time is 54 seconds for a single lap, or 2:44 for the 3 lap total. The second set says "Editorial Department" and has 53.18 and 2:41.58 respectively. These are good times but, I remember some "What the fuck?" times.
Well it turns out I had been remembering an issue of Sega Saturn Magazine (Japan) instead. (1996 Vol 1, page 61 in the PDF, 57 listed)
Yup, that's a 52.74 listed as a target laptime. That's a FAST time. There's a part further down that says 48s are possible with the Stratos on that track, which is an even harder time to get to.
Both articles cover the whole game, but I don't know if they're using a wheel. I don't think the saturn wheel was available in japan in 1996? EDIT: It 100% was. SR95 absolutely benefits from it, being able to drive smoothly is very important for fast times.
Past that, I mostly just find the difference in times interesting. It may not sound like much, but that's the difference between a pretty good time and a really, really good time. The really scary part is, if you don't read japanese, it's possible to interpret these times as what one would do playing single lap, where that would be from a standing start, plus traffic. I'm comfortable saying, I don't think that time is possible from a standing start.
Thanks to @EpsilDelta for some translation help, and Sega Retro for having all of these scans on hand and easy to access.
Above is issue 1996 10-11, page 142. The contest got updates in a few different volumes, this is the only one I looked at as it's the final results.
I'm not doing any translating here I'm just going to write the times out based on what I think they are. Average lap times added by me, for context.
First place times for 3 lap, no stratos:
Desert: 2:37.59 (52.53 AVG)
Forrest: 3:36.24 (1:12.08 AVG)
Mountain: 3:11.37 (1:03.79 AVG)
Lakeside: 3:10.49 (1:03.50 AVG)
With stratos:
Desert: 2:29.94 (49.98 AVG)
Forrest: 3:26.42 (1:06.8 AVG)
Mountain: 3:10.96 (1:03.65 AVG)
Lakeside: 3:10.14 (1:03.38 AVG)
Some individual laptimes in the lower left, no idea what the context is but they have to be stratos times
Desert: 48.65
Forrest: 1:08.09
Mountain: 1:03.01
Lakeside: 1:02.59
These listed times are, faster than anything recorded on video based on my limited knowledge. EDIT: The non stratos times are, yes. There are faster stratos times now. They could have been faked, I don't know if the magazine was asking people to send in tapes or just pictures, but it was also a bit harder to fake a time in 1996 and these aren't any more unreasonably fast than what we do have recorded.
They are fast enough to make me think the wheel must have been available back then, as doing those times on a pad would be kind of absurd.
I'm also fascinated by the fact that, in the almost 30 years since this contest was held, no one has really squeaked out a lot faster than these times if at all. At least, that I'm aware of. Basically this is proof that a few months of very dedicated practice in a game can get you a LOT of progress, and you shouldn't be daunted by people with years more experience than yourself if you really think you've got the skill set to do it.