Barely a month goes by without a carmaker announcing a new lap record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Yet these times mean little to customers, and the image boost from combustion or electric lap records is increasingly negligible.
Just before July turned to August, another headline dropped: General Motors, with its prestigious sports car, the Corvette, had set new lap times at the Nürburgring with its ZR1 and ZR1X models. Not an outright record, nor even one for a category of sports cars—rather, GM is now celebrating the comparatively meaningless title of fastest American manufacturer at the infamous Eifel circuit. “No carmaker has ever attempted a lap record at the Nürburgring like this before,” claimed GM president Mark Reuss. “From development and production to the Nürburgring’s Green Hell, we’ve shown there are no limits to what GM engineers and vehicles can achieve.”
Once hailed as one of the toughest and most important test tracks in the world, the Nürburgring Nordschleife has long been a pilgrimage site for manufacturers, tyre companies, chassis engineers and suppliers. The 20-kilometre track and surrounding B-roads have hosted decades of endurance runs and development laps. But over time, the focus shifted towards a dubious arms race of lap records. Stefan Bellof’s legendary 6-minute qualifying lap during an endurance race remained unbeaten for over 30 years—until carmakers began inventing niche categories in which they could claim new ‘records’ and showcase 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 on the Nordschleife. Given VW doesn’t offer true sports cars, the GTI was the obvious—if underwhelming—candidate. Its lap time of 7:46.13 would likely have left the Corvette ZR1X test drivers yawning. Driver Drew Cattell completed the same course in 6:49.28 in a Corvette with up to 1,250 PS from its 5.0 and 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8s—almost a minute faster.
Renault and Honda spent years battling over the title of fastest front-wheel drive car, with the Mégane RS Trophy often just edging out the Civic Type R and Mini JCW—each lapping in just over 7:40. But all fall far behind VW’s electric prototype, the ID.R, which in 2019, with ex-Porsche driver Romain Dumas at the wheel, completed a lap in 6:05.34. That was a counterstrike against Nio, whose EP9 lapped the ring in 6:45.90 in 2017 with Peter Dumbreck. Though the EP9 isn’t a series-production car, Rimac reclaimed the electric production car crown in 2023 with the 1,900 PS Nevera: Martin Kodric posted a 7:05.29 lap. The current Nevera R has since broken 24 records in one day, including 0–400 km/h in 25.79 seconds—2.04 seconds faster than the previous best.
Porsche, too, loves flaunting lap times around the globe, especially on the Nordschleife. In June, however, its records came from Atlanta and Abu Dhabi—also not absolute records, but best times for production EVs. The 1,100+ PS Taycan Turbo GT with optional Weissach Package was the tool of choice. While it’s unlikely anyone will take a four-door electric coupé for hot laps, one or two quick rounds on track tyres suffice for marketing. Mercedes, meanwhile, parades its AMG One, which holds the Nordschleife supersports car record at 6:29.09.
Currently, Porsche’s Taycan holds electric production car records at circuits including São Paulo, Shanghai, Laguna Seca and Nürburgring—at least until Xiaomi’s SU7 Ultra beat its Nordschleife time of 7:07.5 by around three seconds. Porsche had previously traded electric lap time punches with Tesla, whose Model S Plaid, driven by Tom Schwister, clocked a 7:25.23 in 2023. In 2021, Tesla had no real Nürburgring presence, but it soon had Weissach on alert.
Despite the marketing frenzy, Porsche holds the real record—one not created via category manipulation. In 1983, the late Porsche factory driver Stefan Bellof set a 6:11.13 in a 956 during qualifying. That record stood until 2018, when Timo Bernhard shattered it in a Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo LMP1 car with an extraordinary 5:19.55.
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