Carrera GT The new king on the ring [Archive] - Racerplanet Network Forums

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FeZ
09-22-2004, 10:43 PM
Stuttgart - The Carrera GT is the fastest car to lap the Nürburgring North Circuit. With the clock showing 7'32.44 minutes, Horst von Saurma, Chief Editor of the German specialist magazine "sport auto," achieved a new record for road-approved vehicles, at the wheel of the 612 HP strong Porsche. He completed the 22.6 km long round in the Eifel at an average speed of 164 km/h.

"It was really touch and go. The circuit was dirty in some sectors, which didn't make it any easier," beamed Horst von Saurma with glee, after his record round.

For ten years the magazine has been awarding an (unofficial) challenge cup to the driver who drives the fastest round on the Nürburgring using a road-approved car. Thus the race for the best time round the circuit has become a prestigious affair, as Nürburgring is still the best and most honest test of the quality of a vehicle chassis, motor performance, aerodynamics and naturally of tires. Since 1995, times have gradually improved from 7'52 minutes to the current 7'32.44 minutes. Wolfgang Dürheimer, Member of Porsche's Management Board responsible for Research and Development: "The time achieved by Horst von Saurma is excellent and demonstrates the potential of our car. Until recently such times could exclusively be clocked up with pure racing cars."

The journalist von Saurma clocked up the fastest round in the context of a so-called "super test," which the magazine executes regularly. Top times on the Nürburgring, always driven by the same tester, are among the criteria. Wolfgang Dürheimer: "It is precisely for this reason that the 7'32.44 minutes are so easy for us to put in to context and are thus valuable."

Found this on another forum while RP was unreachable for me.
I may want to grab a copy of sport auto at the newsstand or better read it there while the wife is doing the shopping ^_^

chris
09-23-2004, 12:00 AM
Actually 2nd fastest for road-legal cars (that is, road-legal in whichever country they were made).

Radical SR3 Turbo raced around the circuit in 7min.19sec.. ;)

That car was only 320hp 'weak', but shattered the previous best time by a massive margin. Sport Auto and Porsche I presume already knew about the time of the road-legal Radical (it was even driven to the circuit on public roads), but failed to mention it. It's something near the Top Gear/Radical conspiracy, I tell you.. ;)

Still, the time set by the Porsche is excellent for a comparitively heavy 1400kg car. :) I want to see the video of it flying around the green hell. :)

I also wonder if anyone has driven the F50 and the Enzo Ferrari flat-out around the 'Ring without traffic? Neither will have a hope of matching the Radical SR3's record, but the Enzo might be able to do something about the Carrera GT's time

FeZ
09-23-2004, 12:55 AM
I wonder if the Radical would qualify as a road legal and/or production car :eek:

I would love to see a SLR-Enzo-Carrera Supertest also.