There are records that are broken by the skin of its teeth and there are records that are broken through utter annihilation. The latter scenario played out spectacularly prior to the Bathurst 12 Hours race over the weekend when the Mercedes-AMG GT R obliterated the lap record around Australia’s most famous race circuit when it posted a scintillating time of 2:16.5 to claim the record. To put that time in perspective, the AMG GT R’s new lap record was almost nine seconds quicker than the previous record held by, coincidentally enough, the Mercedes-AMG GT S.
To make the AMG GT R’s lap time more impressive, it managed to lap Bathurst with a time that’s only about 10 seconds slower than a V8 Supercar. Just as important, the range-topping AMG GT’s lap time only ended up being around 15 seconds off the pace of the track’s outright lap record of 2:01.567 that was set by the McLaren 650S GT3 race car back in February 2016.
Five-time Deutsche Touringwagen Masters (DTM) champion and Mercedes factory driver Bernd Schneider piloted the AMG GT R around the track and if not for some traffic around the track, Schneider could have posted an even quicker time that the one he set the record with. That could’ve really put the production lap record in Bathurst well out of reach for future performance cars. Then again, it’s hard to be surprised about the AMG GT R’s overall potency. This is, after all, the same car that went around the Nurburgring, arguably the world’s most famous race track, in just 7:10.92, good enough to place fourth overall, trailing only the Porsche 918 Spyder (the current record holder), the Lamborghini Aventador Superveloce, and the Nissan GT-R. That’s elite company right there.
For now though, the AMG GT R holds the production lap record at Bathurst. That in itself is an achievement that’s worth its weight in the record books.
Continue after the jump to read the full story.
from Top Speed http://ift.tt/2k4geGq
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