Huracan Performante displaces Porsche 918 Spyder
If you were wondering what's the fastest production road car in the world right now, you’ve just found it.
The car in question is the Huracan Performante, and Lamborghini have just revealed it shattered the outright production lap record of the Nurburgring Nordschleife in Germany on October 5 2016 - finishing the day with a 6:52.01.
That's five seconds faster then the Porsche 918 Spyder that held the previous record set in 2013.
At five pm on October 5 officials closed the famous track, this gave Lamborghini and test driver Marco Mapelli a 15 minute window - enough time for one out lap and one timed lap at the Nurburgring - to set their best time.
To make the occasion even more tense for driver Mapelli, a full squad of Lamborghini engineers, technicians, other test drivers and company chairman and CEO Stefano Domenicali were all present to watch him set the time.
Perelli also sent a team of representatives, many of whom are responsible for specially developed tyre's used exclusively on the Huracan Performante, the same tyre future customers will find fitted to their vehicles.
However, Mapelli would not falter. After a brisk warm up lap he headed down the back straight with around seven minutes remaining on the clock, it turns out he would only need 6:52.01 of it to set the new record time around ‘the green hell.’
“This was an incredible and emotional moment,” said Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali after the lap.
“Together with Maurizio Reggiani we agreed during the car’s development that with the technical and performance prowess of the Huracán Performante, not only was a sub seven-minute lap at the Nordschleife possible, but the lap record too."
"We wanted to achieve the Nürburgring victory in advance of the Performante’s launch, which was a challenge in terms of weather and availability of the Nordschleife. Not only did we take the lap record, we took it by some seconds!"
If you’re wondering why you’ve never heard of the Performante, it’s because the car hasn’t been released yet. It set the new record time wrapped in camouflage to hide its skin until it's officially released next week at Geneva International Motor Show.
As the Performante nameplate may suggest to you, the new model is a tuned version of the Huracan coupe. It has the same 5.2-litre V10 engine but is said to produce more than 600hp delivered through a re-worked four-wheel-drive system. Lamborghini also say it features new innovations in aerodynamics and lightweight materials.
Driven will be at Geneva to report the latest when the new production king is fully revealed.
Marco Mapelli's full lap can be watched here.
Nurburgring - Top 5 Production Car's
1) Lamborghini Huracan Performante - 6:52.01
2) Porsche 918 Spyder - 6:57
3) Lamborghini Aventador SV - 6:59.73
4) Nissan GT-R Nismo - 7:08.68
5) Mercedes-AMG GT R - 7:10.92 (Fastest rear-wheel-drive production car)
