The Nurburgring lap time record has been in the headlines recently now that the Lamborghini Huracan Performante has officially set the lap record around the track with a lap time of 6:52.01. That said, the achievement didn’t come without any controversy as a handful of people questioned the legitimacy of the lap record, which prompted a response from Lamborghini itself. This exchange leads me to this question: should automakers really put that much importance on the Nurburgring lap record?
There’s no doubt that it’s a tricky question to answer, in large part because a lot of the cars that make a run at the record are of the power and performance persuasions. Being the fastest around the Green Hell is proof of the car’s capabilities and, in some cases, it becomes a huge selling point in trying to literally sell the car to the consumers. Heck, even James Glickenhaus has gone out and proposed an actual competition to determine which car really is the fastest around the track, presumably doing so on claims that his new SCG 003S track car can lap the world famous track in just 6:30 and change. On these counts, the importance of the Nurburgring lap record is self-evident.
But are automakers putting too much importance on it and sacrificing other things about their cars just so these cars can claim to being the fastest around the track?
I can tell you personally that there are longer stretches of roads where these cars drive on when they’re not in the Nurburgring, so in those cases where power and performance take a back seat to handling and comfort, that Nurburgring lap time does not matter. And, for all the pomp and circumstance attributed to these record laps, automakers should be just as wary about making sure that these cars are as fun to drive on public roads.
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from Top Speed http://ift.tt/2mUKox9
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