Gumpert Apollo Sport claims Nurburgring record

While none of the lap timings set at the German Nurburgring racetrack are officially sanctioned, small-time carmaker Gumpert claims that their new Gumpert Apollo Sport has set a new lap record for a road-legal production car at the track, timed and reported by German magazine Sport-Auto.

The Apollo Sport was driven by a certain 26-year-old driver named Florian Gruber, and the “record” time of 7 minutes 11.57 seconds beats the previous record held by Michael Düchting, who did 7 minutes 14.89 seconds with a Donkervoort D8 RS06 in 2005. Though none of these vehicles are exactly “production” cars, the Radical SR8 in road-legal trim incidentally has a faster time of 6 minutes 55 seconds, though one could argue that the Radical is even less of a proper car than the Gumpert. The Dodge Viper ACR, the Chevy Corvette ZO6 and the Nissan GT-R all take longer than 7 minutes 20 seconds.

The Gumpert Apollo Sport is powered by a 700 hp 4.2-litre twin-turbo V8 engine supplied by Audi. It allows for a 0-200 kph time of 8.9 seconds and a top speed of 360 kph.

Roland Gumpert, a former VW executive, started his company back in 2004 to create track-ready supercars that were also street-legal. The Apollo Sport is not on sale yet.