R35 GT-R Official Lap Time on Nurburgring/Nordschleife

R35 GT-R Official Lap Time on Nurburgring/Nordschleife





OFFICIAL Nurburgring time attack on April 17, 2008 , done with :

Street Legal tires ( Dunlop SP Sport
600 )
100% stock GT-R
Dry surface




Top 10 Lap Times on the Nordschleife :

1.Radical SR8 6:55´05 363bhp/650kg Driver: Michael Vergers

2.Donkervoort D8 RS 7:14.89´05 350/600 Michael Dochting

3.Radical SR3 Turbo 7:19´03 320/500 Phil Bennett

4.Dodge Viper SRT-10 ACR 7:22.1 600/1536 Motor Trend

5.Maserati MC12 7:24.2916 620/1335 EVO Supertest

6.Pagani Zonda F Clubsport 7:24.65 650/1230 EVO Supertest

7.Ferrari Enzo 7:25.21´02 660/1365 EVO Supertest

8.Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 7:26.4´08 647/1519 Jim Mero

9.Porsche Carrera GT 7:28´03 612/1380 Walther Rohrl

10.Nissan GT-R 7:29´08 480hp/1740kg Tochio Suzuki


Running the 'Ring
It turns out our seat time with Suezaki-san piloting the GT-R is scheduled right after lunch. As in minutes after lunch ends. The idea of the GT-R's 473 horsepower and 434 lb-ft of torque tag-teaming the 12.9-mile Nordschleife is enough to turn many would-be passengers green with nausea. I'm regretting my lunch choice of seafood pasta.

As casually as possible, I attempt to communicate this potentially messy situation while twisting the GT-R's ingenious all-in-one seat adjustment knob. In his best English comes Suezaki-san's reply, "Medium-fast, or fast-fast?"

How do you say, "Let's start out fast-fast and if my gastrointestinal tract doesn't cooperate, you'll have to dial it back right quick" across a language barrier?

Suezaki-san tears onto the track and wastes no time bringing the GT-R right to the limit of the tires' adhesion. 'Ring veterans say that it takes 50 laps of the circuit just to memorize the sequence of all 73 turns. Suezaki-san has lapped the circuit several hundred times.

It's manufacturer pool day at the Nürburgring, meaning that the track is currently closed to the public. Traffic is light, but not light enough to make a completely clean lap, and the only other cars we encounter are bandaged-up development mules. I ponder the irony of two top-secret prototypes belonging to competing manufacturers colliding into one another.

We pass all of them, and Suezaki-san gives a friendly wave as he flashes by.

As we reach the end of the main straight leading from Döttinger Höhe, I glance down at the LCD readout temporarily mounted to the passenger side of the dashboard to gain some kind of perspective on the rate at which the scenery is smearing by: 269 km/h, or just over 167 mph. A brush of the brakes and we enter the fast Antoniusbuche left-hander at more than 150 mph as my driver's suit strains against the grippy Alcantara lining the seat surface.

It's over before I expect, and in the end we clocked in at 8 minutes, 13 seconds. Our lap was not intended to be a record attempt, yet nonetheless represents an enviable pace.

The Fastest Lap
The record lap would be set by Nissan's top shoe, Suzuki-san, who ultimately turned in a lap in 7 minutes, 38 seconds on a partially wet circuit. Those ominous clouds looming in the sky earlier in the day left their mark on two areas of the track, Kesselchen and Wehrsiefen, and required Suzuki-san to rein his speed in a bit.

Beating a 911 Turbo around the Nordschleife is an accomplishment at any price, but pipping it by 2 seconds, on a partly damp circuit, at an estimated price point of $80,000 is something else entirely.