Category: Road Cars

Porsche takes back the Nürburgring crown

In September last year, a factory stock Porsche GT2 RS established a new lap record at the Ring, doing the Nordschleif in 6:47,25.  But in July this year, a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ did the lap in 6:44,97. So Porsche lost the crown…

However, the Aventador SVJ that did the lap had a full roll cage. The car does NOT have a full cage when it comes out of the factory and it’s NOT an optional .  So maybe (once again!), Lamborghini didn’t use a stock car.

Instead of criticizing Lamborghini for their faux pas, this week Porsche went back to Nürburgring. This time however with a special GT2. They used the GT2 RS MR, that was prepared by Manthey Racing, a racing team/company owned (51%) by Porsche. Manthey didn’t change much in the stock car, basically added a water tank to better cool down the fuel injection system, upgraded the breaks and added a few aerodynamic aids. The engine and suspension weren’t touched.

The result was a lap done in 6:40,33:

I’m not 100% sure if the GT2 RS MR can be considered a “stock” car, though I bet the Sant’Agata crowd would swear by it, if it was a Lambo . Independent of my opinion, it’s now the new Ring King.

McLaren Speedtail: successor to the F1

This Friday morning McLaren revealed the new Speedtail. And according to the manufacturer, it’s the successor to the iconic F1.

It’s a 1050 hybrid monster that can get past 400 km/h. Only 106 will be produced, and at a starting price of £ 1.75 million, it will be a rare bird to be seen on the highway (all sold out, BTW). I think it looks pretty good, but does remind me of the XJ220…

Uhlenhaut Coupe

Rudolf Uhlenhaut was the designer of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. At the time, it was one of the most advanced cars of the era, and the only reason it didn’t win everywhere was because Mercedes pulled out of motorsports after the 1955 Le Mans tragedy. So after Mercedes was out of the racing business, there were a couple 300 SLR race cars gathering dust in some warehouse in Stuttgart.

You know that expression “street legal racing car”? Well, very probably this was the first one of them all. Being director of engineering at Mercedes-Benz had a few perks, so Uhlenhaut was allowed to use one of the 300 SLR as his company car. He adapted some mufflers for the car and made the cockpit less spartan, and transformed an almost-Le-Mans-winner into his personal company car.

A fast company car, that is.