We’re all astonished by the recent smashing of the Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record by the Lamborghini Huracán Performante. This amazing lap time means that Lamborghini now holds the title for the fastest performance car, shaking up the circuit’s all-time leader board in the process. So with that in mind, this is how the all-time top five fastest production cars look with Lamborghini newly installed at the summit.
1. Lamborghini Huracán Performante: six minutes, 52.01 seconds
Although the car is expected to be much lighter and have a more aggressive aerodynamics package, we won’t know exactly how the latest Huracán achieved this phenomenal time. To put it into perspective, only five cars in history (two of which were single-seat, open top road-legal racecars) have ever achieved a sub-seven-minute lap of the 20.6km circuit.
2. Porsche 918 Spyder: six minutes, 57.0 seconds
When the hybrid hypercar set its time in 2013 it was the first proper car to complete the course in less than seven minutes and, considering the technological complexity of the Porsche — electric motors filling in for turbo-lag, all-wheel drive, all-wheel steering — many believed that the time would never be beaten
3. Lamborghini Aventador LP 750-4 Superveloce: six minutes, 59.73 seconds
© Lamborghini
Proving that a normally aspirated V12 engine sitting in a carbon fiber frame can still cut it with the best of cutting-edge automotive tech, the company’s then flagship model was driven to a sub-seven-minute time by Marco Mapelli who, incidentally was also behind the wheel of the Huracán for its record-braking lap.
4. NextEV Nio EP9: seven minutes, 5.12 seconds
© Car Magazine
When the Nio EP9 set its time in 2016 it became the world’s fastest electric supercar. In recent weeks the company has also set a record for the fastest ever lap of the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) Race in Texas as a piloted car and as a driverless car.
5. Nissan GT-R Nismo: seven minutes, 8.68 seconds
The most affordable car on the list, Godzilla, as it’s nicknamed, may only have a twin-turbo V6 engine but it also has four-wheel drive and a host of cutting-edge technological driver aids to ensure that no matter how hard it’s pushed, it never comes unstuck. This time was set in 2015 in what is now the outgoing model and Nissan is expected to head back to the track this year to ensure the new version picks up where this one left off. But will its techicians be able to shave 12 seconds off its lap time?
Honorable mentions
The Mercedes-AMG GT-R: It comes in sixth place but, with a time of seven minutes, 10.92 seconds, set in January, it can claim to be the world’s fastest rear-wheel-drive car.
Radical SR8LM: If lap times are all that’s important, nothing has ever bettered the six-minute, 48-second lap set by this little racing car in 2009. However, that turn of speed will mean making a host of sacrifices such as living without doors, a passenger seat, storage space or even a roof.
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