Gumpert Ring record
Gumpert Apollo breaks the road car record of the Nürburgring Nordschleife
The Ring wars are on again. After the ongoing battle between Porsche and Nissan over which of their respective supercars could lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife faster, a new fight looks set to break out between Radical and Gumpert.
The Radical SR8 apparently holds the fastest lap record for a production car at 6m55, but Gumpert has just took its Apollo Sport around in 7m11.57s and is claiming the quickest ‘road legal factory car’ time.
Fisticuffs aside, it’s an impressive performance from the Apollo, which was piloted by 26-year-old Florian Gruber (who drove in the Volkswagen Ring 24 hour team with our John Barker). The Apollo Sport boasts an Audi-sourced 4.2-litre V8 with twin turbos and 690bhp/645lb ft on tap. It was equipped for the lap with road-legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tyres.
‘The conditions were good, but not perfect – so we have still got potential to go faster’ said Gruber, who reckons a sub-7 minute time is possible, which could rule out any debate with Radical altogether.
However, company director Roland Gumpert stressed - ‘It is great that we broke the record and that we were able to show the potential of the Apollo – but at this stage there is no need to go faster. We don’t want to demoralise our fellow competitors’.
With Radical heading to the Ring with an updated SR8, though, that could all change…
