Nürburgring , the unavoidable German circuit is a constant presence in the Automobile Reason. Some of you may already be a little fed up, but don't “kill the messenger”. Blame the builders who turned “green hell” into a metric to determine the performance of their models.
Yes, we can discuss the validity of records, whether for the way they are timed or for what is understood as a "series car". As has been widely discussed, a regulatory body is needed to remove all doubts. But until then, we can only trust the word of the builders.
Given its fame, it would be natural to try the most varied type of records along the 20,832 km of circuit length. Be it the circuit's absolute record, be it the record within a certain category, often “invented” by the authors of any record.
But as we deepen our research into the various existing records, we enter the world of the strange and even the bizarre...
SUV
It doesn't make a lot of sense, considering the nature of SUVs, but there was (and is) a competition for the title of fastest SUV in “Green Inferno”.And it involved none other than Range Rover, which often claim off-road supremacy, and, of course, Porsche. In 2014 Range Rover attacked the Nürburgring Nordschleife with the new Range Rover Sport SVR , V8 and 550 horsepower, achieving a time of 8min14s.
Porsche could not fail to respond to the challenge. A year later he took his Cayenne Turbo S to the German circuit, also with a V8, but with 570 horsepower, managing to lower the eight-minute barrier by just one second – 7min59s (although there is no video about the feat). Pretender to the throne? The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, smaller and lighter than the Cayenne, despite the power deficit — 510 horsepower (NDR: the Stelvio, meanwhile, has become the fastest SUV on the German circuit).
Minivan (MPV)
If an SUV is by no means the best creature to attack the Nürburgring, what about an MPV or minivan? But that's precisely what Opel did in 2006, with the Zafira OPC , the most powerful and sporty version of the popular familiar. The 240 horsepower of the 2.0 l turbo allowed it to make a lap in 2006 of 8min54.38s, a record that remains today.
commercial van
Yes, we know that commercial vans are the fastest vehicles on the planet. No matter which car we're driving, we'll have one behind us giving us light signals to get out of her way. Of course, they've also shone at the Nürburgring.The most famous attempt of all was made by Sabine Schmitz, behind the wheel of a Ford Transit to Diesel in 2004, in the Top Gear program. Goal: less than 10 minutes. Something he couldn't achieve, getting a time of 10min08s (bridge-to-gantry).
This time continued until 2013, when the German coach Revo took a Volkswagen Transporter T5 2.0 TDI twin turbo , “scrambled”, ie reprogrammed, with a new exhaust system, intercooler, oil cooler and adjustable Bilstein suspension. The time achieved was 9min57.36s, but it covered the entire circuit, in other words, 1.6 km more than the Ford Transit. The other way of measuring a lap on the German circuit is the aforementioned bridge-to-gantry.
Pick-up
If a Ford Transit can try to be the fastest, why not a pickup truck? Although we are not talking about a “classic” pickup truck, like a Toyota Hilux or a huge Ford F-150. The record holder derives directly from a light car and could be nothing more or less than an Australian “ute”. THE Holden Ute SS V Redline , based on the rear-wheel-drive Commodore saloon and a massive 6.2l V8 at the front, with 367 horsepower, clocked a time of 8min19.47s in 2013.
Although more powerful versions of the Ute later emerged, such as the HSV Maloo GTS with the Camaro ZL1's supercharged V8 engine and 585 horsepower, Holden made no further attempts to break its own record.
tractor, yes… tractor
Yeah, a tractor. And from the brand that calls the Nürburgring its backyard. Porsche has assembled one of its tractors, the P111 Diesel — known as Junior — to Walter Röhrl, the master, still a Porsche test driver. As you would expect it was slow, very slow. So slow that the record was never released. However, being the slowest vehicle to make a lap of the circuit is still a record in itself.Two wheels but with a car
As the saying goes, there are freaks for everything. Even to equip a mini with solid tires on the driver's side and ride the “green hell” on just two wheels. The record was set by a Chinese driver and stuntman, Han Yue, in November 2016. The lap had its setbacks, with one of the wheels giving problems, generating vibration and affecting the car's balance.
The result was a time over 45 minutes, at an average speed just over 20 km/h.
Hybrid
the record of the Toyota Prius it wasn't in order to get the fastest time, but the lowest consumption. Respecting the speed limit of 60 km/h, the Japanese brand's hybrid consumed only 0.4 l/100 km. The final time was 20min59s.