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
Holy sht…NIO automaker must be shtting himself
Salomondrin: Why I sold my 918…
Vehicle Virgins: Why I replaced my Huracan
I would never replace a 918 with a Huracan, I rather just save up and have them both.
What is performante?
Lol
Italian for Performing, so performance
Saw this coming when the Aventador SV was about to break the 918’s record and VW group told them to stop cause the were close. Now with a lighter engine (let’s face it, the v10 is better suited for lap times) the 918 is obsolete lol
Read the article through before commenting maybe?
The Aventador SV only got two laps in before getting two close to the 918’s time. VAG told them to take it off the track so not to embarass the 918.
Although im a Porsche fanboy, this is amazing. And no stupid electricity cheating too! :D
“cheating” while hybrid and electrycity give instant torque and power, it’s also add huge load of weight and on a corner focused track (although staight line speed is also important) weight doesn’t help
The Porsche may be slower, but it has one key advantage. You can middle-finger Prii guilt-free - the 918 gets better MPG on the official cycle than a Prius!
James May will not be happy about this…
and people say Lambos are just used to show off…