The Lamborghini Huracan Performante Is Your New Nurburgring Production Lap Record Holder
When Lamborghini clocked a stunning 6min 59sec lap time with the Aventador SV a little while ago, we were genuinely astonished. It was just under three seconds behind the much more complicated, much more expensive Porsche 918 Spyder, and it was great to see something of the Aventador on YouTube that wasn’t just rich dudes revving the nuts off their cars in Nightsbridge.
Now though, Lamborghini has gone one better: the new Huracan Performante has beaten the 918 by five seconds, bagging the Nurburgring production car lap record in the process.
Behind the wheel was Marco Mapelli - the same test driver who clocked the 6:59 in the Aventador SV. He was given just a 15 minute window of closed track time on 5 October 2016, allowing for just one attempt, which yielded a 6:52.01 lap. Fastest ‘road car’ honours still go to the Radical SR8 LM with the 6:48 it set back in 2009, but since that machine is essentially a racing car with number plates, you can’t really consider it a production car.
Lamborghini still hasn’t divulged much about the Performante other than its staggering ‘Ring lap time - we’ll have to wait until its Geneva debut next week for full details. Expect it to have lost a fair bit of weight compared to the standard Huracan, and been given a power boost. What we do know is the record car used Pirelli Trofeo R tyres, which will be the boots fitted to customer cars.
What we strongly urge you to do now - if you haven’t already - is sit back and watch the whole lap. It shows just how preposterously fast the Performante is, and that Mapelli probably isn’t human.
We are in awe…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Where is that kid saying that lambos are just show cars and gtr is the real deal ?
Lamborghininininininis are just stupid show cars, you want real Performante, get Nissan GTR!
I know the main reason why its faster. Remember that deadly crash jann mardenborough had? They flattend out that section of the track because of the crash making it less bumpy. Less bumpy = faster. Its like comparing spa francochamps laptimes before and after they added the busstop chicane. Or pikes peak fully paved vs the dirt version.
They smoothed 5 bumps… 5. While the older track was slower it wasnt 5 seconds slower.
Am I the only one whose eyes are not confused by those patterns they put on the car? I can still see every edge, curve, and flat surface in the body. I just don’t understand why they put them on cars if I’m not the only one
Am I right in thinking what this article says is one Volkswagen company, has made a faster car than another Volkswagen company?
Yes you are.
Interestingly enough, there wasn’t a VW executive that came in to stop the record lap like the Aventador SV. Also, the car in the video has no HVAC, almost no interior and running barely legal tires. It’s kinda putting other cars at a disadvantage.
And both Volkswagen companies release their track times, unlike cough cough Ferrari and McLaren…
Wasn’t the Aventador always supposed to be the best performing Lambo out of their current line-up ? Won’t it damage the Aventador SV sales by making the Huracan faster ?
I think Porsche was limiting the Cayman GT4’s performance deliberately because it was rumored that it’s quicker than most of their 911’s, and doing so they ensured they weren’t gonna lose sale numbers on the 911’s. Could be wrong.
The SV is already sold out. So it doesn’t matter all that much
The V10 is better for lap times because it makes close to the same power with less weight. Take for example the Sesto Elemento. Lightest possible car with a V10 chosen over the V12.
That’s an incredible achievement by Lamborghini I do wonder though how much of that is the same as the production car like I doubt the production car is going to have a roll cage and a full racing seat. Also I dunno about ye but in the lap video I didn’t see a passenger seat…. I’m a huge Lamborghini fan just with set lap times that are as amazing as this I do have a few doubts whether the production car would be able to repeat this amazing feat
Must be fustrating to know that the new gt2rs is going to beat the lambos ass
I wonder if Koenigsegg will be in any way deterred…
Sigh….
Driver looks so chilled