Perhaps You've Been Curious As To Recent Viper-Related Nurburgring Activity
According to my friends at WeLiveInOurParentsBasementAndTalkAboutRacingOnTheInternet.com, the Viper ACR is currently the ‘Ring record holder, having beaten the Lexus LF-A’s 7:14 mark.
It seemed suspicious that nobody had wasted a perfectly decent trip to Europe attacked the North Shu-Life-Uh lately, and our suspicions were confirmed when “DriveSRT” released the above video…
That’s right, the Viper ACR-X now has the record, at 7:03. But wait! The Viper ACR-X isn’t a street car. Or is it? There are several states where it would be no problem to register an ACR-X for street use. So maybe it does have the record, assuming you exclude various Radicals and whatnot. This car ran a 6m11s wayyyy back in the day, and we know it is a street car, because it says “Racing” on it. Or something like that. Seriously though, the Dauer 962 was street-legal, and there probably wasn’t that much difference between this 956 and a Dauer. It’s all very confusing.
What’s important, from a promotional perspective, is that you watch this video and then run out to buy a brand-new Viper. Did you know that you can buy a brand-new Viper? Now you do.
Here at TTAC, we didn’t actually make it all the way through the video, but we did notice that the ACR-X is simply too fast to take Fuchsrohre flat out. Scary, impressive, fun, and irrelevant all at the same time. Now, if you excuse us, we are off to find $106,000, starting by looking in the cushions of the couch we’ve been using to sit on while we argue about ‘Ring times on the Internet.
More by Jack Baruth
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There is not a single US State where you could register an ACR-X. No emissions controls, no air bags, and most importantly - no VIN number.
Ah, the beauty of TopGear. As soon as they complain about the Nurburgring, suddenly every car enthusiast is "over it", and finds it has "jumped the shark". Even though TopGear played a part in making it that famous in the first place... The fact is that the Nordschleife is a pretty amazing place to test a new car. It is a very long track, very rich in variety, has corners of every kind, high speed straights, etc. And a lot of cars have laptimes for comparison. That is the reason why it has been used for german (and european) car makers as a test track for decades. And since those cars are being driven around there, and there are very respectable laptimes by SportAuto etc. for basically every fast car - of course someone makes a table out of it for comparison. This also has been done for decades. What is ridiculous is the idea of tuning "everyday" cars specifically for the Ring. A GT2 specifically tested and tuned for the ring is a clever idea - because it is a car made for race tracks and therefore why not use a very good race track as a testing/developing ground. A Corsa specifically made for the Ring is stupid. As is the idea of a Cadillac developed there. Sure, test it there when it is done and compare the number with the rest of them. But why develop it at a track that maybe a dozen of the cars will ever see in their lives? However that mostly is a problem in the marketing departments of some car companies. Has nothing to do with the Ring itself - which has been (and still is) an amazing race track, that offers itself to be used in testing and tuning cars. If it makes sense...
...."Scary, fun and irrelevant".....couldn't agree more, and frankly I can't watch enough of it, although the camera position and lack of tach/speedo spoil the video of this otherwise awesome run. What troubles me is your comment on a detour to Schloss Nurburg ruining a European vacation.......hope you're not getting jaded, JB......when a man tires of the 'ring, he's tired of life (or was that champagne?). At any rate, that lap time is going to be tough to beat for anything remotely streetable/production, although this particular Viper may be neither. And contenders better hurry, as I understand the circuit operators are having serious financial problems, and there could soon be no track to blog about.
"WeLiveInOurParentsBasementAndTalkAboutRacingOnTheInternet.com" - classic Baruth... Disagree with May over the 'ring as the ride around has become iconic and almost regardless of time posted is exciting. For those who appreciate the symphony of machinery, the sounds of the wonderful variety of current engines are simply intoxicating when pressed for 'ring duty. Love James May, but think he's jumped the shark on this one.