Hardly a month passes without a car manufacturer in the Nürburgring Nordschleife announced a new round record. But these times mean little to the customers, and the image climber through combustion or electrical lap recordings is always negligible.
Shortly before July to August, another heading ceased: General Motors with his prestigious sports car, the Corvette, had set new lap times in the Nürburgring with his ZR1 and ZR1X models. GM now neither celebrates a complete recording nor one for a category of sports cars – and is now celebrating the comparatively meaningless title of a fastest American manufacturer on the notorious Eifel Circuit. “No car manufacturer has ever tried a round record in the Nürburgring like this,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “From development and production to the green hell of the Nürburgring, we have shown that there are no limits to reach GM engineers and vehicles.”
The Nürburgring north loop is a pilgrimage for manufacturers, tire companies, chassis engineers and suppliers after celebrating the world’s hardest and most important test marks. The 20-kilometer route and the surrounding B-roads have organized endurance runs and development rounds for decades. But over time, the focus shifted to a doubtful arms race from lap records. Stefan Bellof’s legendary 6-minute qualification round During an endurance race, the car manufacturers began with the invention of niche categories for over 30 years of unbeaten-in which they could claim new “records” and present supposed sportiness.
The smaller the niche, the easier the record. In June, Volkswagen proudly announced that the Golf GTI Edition 50 was the fastest production VW of the Nordschleife. Since VW does not offer real sports cars, the GTI was the obvious – if not overwhelming -. The round time of 7: 46.13 would probably have yawned the Corvette ZR1X test driver. The driver Drew Cattell completed the same course in 6: 49.28 in a corvette with up to 1,250 hp of 5.0 and 5.5-liter twin turbo V8S fast one minute faster.
Renault and Honda fought for the title of the fastest car car with front-wheel drive for years, with the Mégane RS Trophy often only the Civic Type R and Mini JCW out-up-a little more than 7:40 a.m. But everyone is far behind the electrical prototype of VW, the ID.R, who completed a round in 6: 05.34 with the ex-Porsche driver Romain Dumas in 2019. That was a Countertrike against NIO, whose EP9 solved the ring in 6: 45.90 in 2017 with Peter Dumbreck. Although the EP9 is not a series production car, Rimac has a 7: 05.29 round with the 1,900 PS Nevera: Martin Kodric in 2023. Since then, the current Nevera R has broken 24 records in one day, including 0–400 km/h in 25.79 seconds – 2.04 seconds faster than the previous best.
Porsche also loves to weak around the globe, especially on the Nordschleife. In June, however, the records of Atlanta and Abu Dhabi – also no absolute records, but the best times for the production of EVS. The 1,100 PS Taycan Turbo GT with optional Weissach package was the tool of choice. While it is unlikely that someone will take a four -door electric coupé for hot rounds, one or two quick rounds on the route tires for marketing are enough. Meanwhile, Mercedes parades his AMG One, who holds the Nordschlamp Supersport -Auto -Auto record at 6:29.09.
Taycan from Porsche from Porsche is currently stopping electro -production cars in circuits such as São Paulo, Shanghai, Laguna Seca and Nürburgring – at least until Xiaomis Su7 Ultra defeated its northern skating time of 7: 07.5 by about three seconds. Porsche had previously traded Electric Lap Time Punches with Tesla, whose plaid of the model, which was driven by Tom Schwister, clocked 7: 25.23 in 2023. In 2021, Tesla had no real presence from Nürburgring, but soon Weissach had the alarm.
Despite the marketing gray, Porsche holds the actual record – one that was not created through the manipulation of the category. In 1983 the late Porsche work driver Stefan Bellof set a 6: 11.13 in a 956. This record was until 2018 when Timo Bernhard shattered it in a Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo LMP1 car with an extraordinary 5: 19.55 car.
