Thu. Mar 28th, 2024
Nürburgring

Fastest Lap Times Set on the Nürburgring to Date

Nurburgring Nordschleife, also known as ‘’The Green Hell’’ is a public road in mid-western Germany near Belgium. The racetrack has two sections; first is the GP Track made in 1984 used for professional racing up and to Formula 1. The second is the Nordschliefe (northern loop), which is what we refer to when we say Nurburgring. Carmakers use this track to prove the capabilities of their vehicles and compare the performance numbers with the rivals. Why Nurburgring? Because, it is the world’s trickiest, longest and most risky racetrack with 21km length and 70 corners, featuring almost 1,000 feet of elevation change. Today, we will talk about the fastest lap times set on the Nürburgring.

Nürburgring

Inchcape Volkswagen has recently produced a Nürburgring lap records factsheet, which gives us:

  • the top 20 fastest lap times set on the Nürburgring to date
  • some background information about each car featured (for example, the country where the manufacturer is based and the type of vehicle in question)
  • some key characteristics of each car featured (for instance, 0-62mph time, top speed, economy and power)

Let’s discuss these factors in detail:

As per the factsheet, the fastest lap record at Nürburgring was achieved by the open-wheeler SR8LM manufactured by Radical in 2007. It took ‘6:48:00’ to complete the lap. The previous best was from its old brother SR8 (another open-wheeler from the UK manufacturer Radical), which recorded ‘6:55:00’ lap time.

You may not know but the best record holders at Nürburgring are coupes. The fastest in the coupe segment is the 2013 Porsche 918 Spyder, which pumps out 875 bhp and 1280 Nm of torque. This power can take it to 62mph in just 2.8 seconds on its way to the top speed of 214mph. Its Nürburgring lap record stands at ‘6:57:00’, which is followed by the Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 SV 2016, which completed the lap by just taking 2 more seconds ‘6:59:73’. The 2016 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 SV can sprint from 0 to 62mph in only 2.8 seconds and can go as fast as 219mph.

The fastest accelerating car in the coupe segment is 2015 Nissan GT-R Nismo (R35), which can reach to 62mph in a mind boggling 2.5 seconds. Manufactured in Japan, the GT-R Nismo has a top speed of 196mph. It completed the circuit in ‘7:08:68’, which makes it the fifth fastest car at Nürburgring.

Interestingly, there is only one convertible among the top 20 fastest lap record holders i.e. 2004 Maserati MC12, which took ‘7:24:29’ to complete the lap. The engine is powerful enough to create 641bhp and 780 Nm of torque.

In the hot hatch category, the competition is getting tougher day by day. The front-wheel drive production cars have been doing great since last 2 years to gain the benchmark lap time. In March 2014, the SEAT Leon Cupra 280 became the fastest hatchback to complete the run around Nürburgring track in ‘7:58.4’. It was soon beaten by the Renault Megane RS 275 Trophy-R with ‘7:54.36’. Then came the Honda Civic Type R and completed the lap in just ‘7:50.63’. It remained the fastest front-wheel drive production car for 2 years until recently the new VW Golf GTI Clubsport S model attempted the Nürburgring for the very first time and boy it was quick completing the lap in only ‘7:49:21’. This is something Volkswagen should be proud of, after the disheartening diesel scandal.