Lamborghini Has Defended Its Performante Nurburgring Lap Time With Data

Speaking to Roadshow in Geneva, Lamborghini's R&D head has sought to dispel claims of fakery

09 Mar 2017

Lamborghini Has Defended Its Performante Nurburgring Lap Time With Data

Mere hours after Lamborghini bagged the production car lap record at the Nurburgring via a stunning run in its new Huracan Performante, claims of foul play arose.

You can see why: manufacturers have been known to lay claim to records and amazing lap times through dubious means. Some have added up sector times to get an overall figure. Nissan infamously used a host of modifications to help the Nismo GT-R on to its 7min 8sec lap, belatedly overing them as a kit for existing owners. And Lamborghini? It found various bloggers and vloggers pointing out that the speedometer figures at many points of the lap were not just slower than the Porsche 918 Spyder, but also slower than the Aventador SV during its 6min 59sec run a couple of years ago.

Lamborghini has now responded. At the Geneva Motor Show this week Roadshow were shown the full Vbox GPS log of the lap, displaying its legitimacy and ruling out any theories of adding up sector times. Maurizio Reggiani - Lamborghini’s Director of Research and Development - said that the Huracan’s speedometer is fed from GPS information rather than wheel speed, giving inconsistent results. Furthermore, he explained that the Performante makes up for its lower top speed relative to the Aventador SV through better acceleration and an ability to carry more speed out of corners.

Another claim was that the Performante was running slicks, arising from the lack of tyre squeal in the lap video. Reggiani re-iterated what Pirelli has already said - the Performante ran a set of Trofeo Rs bespoke to the hot Huracan, which will be available to buyers as an option.

Rumours of fakery will die down but no doubt rumble away in the background whatever Lamborghini says. More to the point, this whole saga demonstrates the issue with car manufacturers and Nurburgring lap times. Without an independent body to oversee the process and verify times, the concept is flawed. And anyway, despite all the attention we give ‘Ring times, do they really matter? Do they ever make you want a car more than you already do?

Discuss…

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

Now I know this is crazy but hear me out on this. If this isn’t fake then Lamborghini can go and do the lap again with an official independent body to oversee it all, maybe in the form of some camera that they can watch in real time, and get the same/better/or similar lap times and tell the world to go shove it. Or we just listen to Boosted Boris and that’s that.

Everybody is arguing about this for no reason…for me even being close to 918 and the P1 is an astonishing performance by Lamborghini. They’ve never been the fastest..but the coolest ..so whatever..

The normal huracan is faster than the normal aventador, so i dont se why the performante cant be faster than the sv

Does the production Performante have a rollcage?

Boris was the only one who claimed the lap was fake. The next day actual racing drivers took his video and debunked it. After that Racelogic (the VBOX guys) got the data from the Lambo and The Porsche and also confirmed the lap time was legit. The problem with the data Boris provides is that it’s next to irrelevant. He never talked about brake points and distance, only the speed mid corner. Also the shadow argument is as viable as Maldonados ability to finish a race.

I’d love to wait and read for an article about Lambo’s ALA. Maybe that could solve those flaming issues. (Or not but still worth a try)

Almost 1/4 of the tank in that lap XD

“the Huracan’s speedometer is fed from GPS information rather than wheel speed, giving inconsistent results”
Why would anybody do this when you can simply measure wheel speed

So let me get this straight… A Huracan with 30 more hp and less weight, running road-legal tires was not only 30 seconds faster than the standard car but 5 seconds off a ZONDA R? The car with 150 more horsepower, 300 kgs less weight, running full race aero and slicks? Yeah, sounds about right. Btw the Geneva Motor Show is on, there’s no way they did this as a sort of publicity stunt ;)