Yesterday we reported on the Gumpert Apollo Speed’s record time of 7.11.5 seconds round the infamous Nurburgring in Germany. Today, we hear that the Radical SR8LM has smashed this time with a 6.48 minute lap. At the hands of Michael Vergers, the SR8LM was driven from the factory to the ring and back to the factory again on the same set of Dunlop track tires.
Yesterday’s ‘record’ wasn’t so much of a record for all production cars as a record for hardtop production cars. The SR8LM is more of an open top LeMans racer than a traditional road car, yet it is able to be road registered and therefore qualifies as a production car. It’s this technical detail that Gumpert were getting at yesterday when they failed to mention that the SR8 had already set a faster time of 6.55 minutes.
In our minds, the fact that the Radical was driven from the factory to the track and back again without changing tires makes it credible as the fastest production car to ever lap the ‘ring.
The SR8LM is available at an affordable price of £89,000. It features a 2.8 litre, 455bhp Powertec RPB V8. The time was witnessed and verified by German Magazine Sport Auto and UK Magazine EVO.
Track tyres. Not road legal.