Porsche smashed the Nurburgring lap record with the 911 GT2 RS, putting to bed the Lamborghini Huracan Performante's record by an impressive five seconds. Alfa Romeo returned with the Quadrifoglio-treated Stelvio and shattered the Porsche Cayenne’s lap record for the fastest SUV around the Green Hell. That’s two ‘Ring records in the last two weeks.
With the Nurburgring lap records being shattered every once in awhile, we gathered the top practical cars with the lowest Nurburgring record time. These champion cars are very practical to live with, but at the same time are capable of laughing at the face of these so-called supercars and their ‘Ring lap records. These unlikely heroes can be your daily runners and at the same time teach a thing or two to the mad supercars when driven with the right intentions.
F10 BMW M5 – 7.55
You cannot talk about the Nurburgring without mentioning the ‘Ring Taxi’. The high-performance M5 sedan calls the Nurburgring its second home. And why not, since the M5 is comfortable enough to ferry four people around while pulling their guts out with its performance. The last generation F10 M5 was heavy but the turbocharged V8 breathed out 560bhp of firepower. The sleeper M5 is comfortable for grocery shopping as well.
2017 Volvo S60 Polestar - 7.51.11
Volvo actually broke the Nurburgring record and remained mum about it for a year. The Polestar-prepped S60 clocked a time of 7:51:11seconds when the carmaker was carrying out a ‘secret test’. The purpose was to improve the performance of both road and motorsport cars. Volvo justifies the delay in letting the world know of their record time by saying, “Being Swedish, we didn't want to shout about the record, just learn from the experience”.
2017 Honda Civic Type R - 7.43.80
Honda took everyone by surprise when the 2017 Honda Civic Type R crossed the line with a time record of 7.43.80seconds claiming the title ofthe fastest FWD car around the Green Hell. The new generation actuallyretains its reputation by smashing its own previous generation record by seven seconds. The 306bhp front-wheel-drive Civic Type R is one serious hot hatch.
2017 Porsche Panamera Turbo - 7.38
The second generation Panamera cracked the ‘Ring record with an unbelievable time of 7.38seconds. The four-door Panamera Turbo has a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 lurking under its hood that churns out 550bhp- enough to haul the 1.8tonne sedan around the grueling track with utmost ease. Blame the advanced Porsche hardware working its wizardry for this magical time.
2016 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio – 7.32
Who knew an Alfa Romeo would top this list? In an attempt to beat its German rivals, Alfa went a little too far with its Giulia Quadrifoglio. A Ferrari-derived 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V6 belting out a whopping 510bhp did the trick for the Alfa. With a manual transmission, the Alfa's original run was of 7:39seconds. But then the Italian carmaker plonked the new eight-speed automatic transmission in the sedan,thus making the QV Giulia the fastest sedan around the Nordschleife with a time of 7.32seconds.
