Barely a month goes by with no carmaker saying a brand new lap document on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. But these instances imply little to prospects, and the picture enhance from combustion or electrical lap information is more and more negligible.
Simply earlier than July turned to August, one other headline dropped: Basic Motors, with its prestigious sports activities automobile, the Corvette, had set new lap instances on the Nürburgring with its ZR1 and ZR1X fashions. Not an outright document, nor even one for a class of sports activities vehicles—quite, GM is now celebrating the comparatively meaningless title of quickest American producer on the notorious Eifel circuit. “No carmaker has ever tried a lap document on the Nürburgring like this earlier than,” claimed GM president Mark Reuss. “From improvement and manufacturing to the Nürburgring’s Inexperienced Hell, we’ve proven there are not any limits to what GM engineers and automobiles can obtain.”
As soon as hailed as one of many hardest and most essential take a look at tracks on the earth, the Nürburgring Nordschleife has lengthy been a pilgrimage web site for producers, tyre firms, chassis engineers and suppliers. The 20-kilometre observe and surrounding B-roads have hosted many years of endurance runs and improvement laps. However over time, the main target shifted in the direction of a doubtful arms race of lap information. Stefan Bellof’s legendary 6-minute qualifying lap throughout an endurance race remained unbeaten for over 30 years—till carmakers started inventing area of interest classes wherein they may declare new ‘information’ and showcase supposed sportiness.
The smaller the area of interest, the better the document. In June, Volkswagen proudly introduced that the Golf GTI Version 50 was the quickest manufacturing VW on the Nordschleife. Given VW doesn’t provide true sports activities vehicles, the GTI was the apparent—if underwhelming—candidate. Its lap time of seven:46.13 would possible have left the Corvette ZR1X take a look at drivers yawning. Driver Drew Cattell accomplished the identical course in 6:49.28 in a Corvette with as much as 1,250 PS from its 5.0 and 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8s—nearly a minute quicker.
Renault and Honda spent years battling over the title of quickest front-wheel drive automobile, with the Mégane RS Trophy typically simply edging out the Civic Kind R and Mini JCW—every lapping in simply over 7:40. However all fall far behind VW’s electrical prototype, the ID.R, which in 2019, with ex-Porsche driver Romain Dumas on the wheel, accomplished a lap in 6:05.34. That was a counterstrike towards Nio, whose EP9 lapped the ring in 6:45.90 in 2017 with Peter Dumbreck. Although the EP9 isn’t a series-production automobile, Rimac reclaimed the electrical manufacturing automobile crown in 2023 with the 1,900 PS Nevera: Martin Kodric posted a 7:05.29 lap. The present Nevera R has since damaged 24 information in at some point, together with 0–400 km/h in 25.79 seconds—2.04 seconds quicker than the earlier finest.
Porsche, too, loves flaunting lap instances across the globe, particularly on the Nordschleife. In June, nonetheless, its information got here from Atlanta and Abu Dhabi—additionally not absolute information, however finest instances for manufacturing EVs. The 1,100+ PS Taycan Turbo GT with non-compulsory Weissach Package deal was the instrument of alternative. Whereas it’s unlikely anybody will take a four-door electrical coupé for warm laps, one or two fast rounds on observe tyres suffice for advertising. Mercedes, in the meantime, parades its AMG One, which holds the Nordschleife supersports automobile document at 6:29.09.
At the moment, Porsche’s Taycan holds electrical manufacturing automobile information at circuits together with São Paulo, Shanghai, Laguna Seca and Nürburgring—a minimum of till Xiaomi’s SU7 Extremely beat its Nordschleife time of seven:07.5 by round three seconds. Porsche had beforehand traded electrical lap time punches with Tesla, whose Mannequin S Plaid, pushed by Tom Schwister, clocked a 7:25.23 in 2023. In 2021, Tesla had no actual Nürburgring presence, but it surely quickly had Weissach on alert.
Regardless of the advertising frenzy, Porsche holds the actual document—one not created by way of class manipulation. In 1983, the late Porsche manufacturing facility driver Stefan Bellof set a 6:11.13 in a 956 throughout qualifying. That document stood till 2018, when Timo Bernhard shattered it in a Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo LMP1 automobile with a rare 5:19.55.
