Nurburgring lap time record competition proposed by James Glickenhaus

Lamborghini is the latest manufacturer to set an unverified Nürburgring record; Glickenhaus wants a "Road Cup" competition to award an official fastest lap
9 March 2017

James Glickenhaus, the wealthy American who recently announced he plans to build a road-legal version of his Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG 003 race car, has also told Autocar that he wants to launch a “Road Cup” competition at the Nürburgring Nordschliefe to discover which road-legal car is really quickest around there.

Annoyed by unverified manufacturer lap times, most recently Lamborghini’s claim that the Huracán Performante has posted a 6:52 time of the 12.7-mile circuit, Glickenhaus is proposing a competition to be run as part of the Nürburgring 24 Hour race (N24), with road-legal cars having to drive from Cologne, Germany to the Nürburgring on the same set of tyres that they then set a lap time on.

Glickenhaus himself admits that this may sound mad, and also that the Nürburgring authorities haven’t agreed to his idea yet. “They’re reading about it in the press,” he told Autocar at the Geneva show, “they’re going to be like 'what the hell is Jim doing?'”

Yet Glickenhaus has form here – he already endows a cup and prize that’s awarded to the fastest-qualifying car at the N24 race, and he’s already spent many millions of dollars developing and racing both the Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina and, more recently, his own SCG 003.

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Lamborghini Huracan

Lamborghini Huracán

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He’s also adamant that his newly-announced Stradale road-legal version, which will be limited to a run of three customer cars and which will cost $1.8m, will prove to be the fastest car around the Nürburgring.

“We know its [race] sister can do a 6:20 lap,” he told us. “It did that with 580hp, 100kg more downforce and half a g more lateral cornering ability. But this car weighs the same, has 300bhp and 250lb ft more.

"On race tyres it would be faster than the race car, but on road tyres it will be about 30sec per lap slower, so around a 6:40. That’s as fast as anyone’s going to go.”

Even if Glickenhaus gets his plan approved, we’ll have to wait until next year to see it. “My idea is to let them yell and scream,” says Glickenhaus of the N24 organisers.

“Then they’ll get over that and we’ll come back and race at the Nürburgring for next year. We’re going to do it.”

If he manages it, we’ll be there.

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Comments
7

Symanski

9 March 2017
Yip, my very own McLaren P1, 7:31 on the first attempt. Easy. Ok, I will admit it was on the XBox playing Forza 6... I'm sure if I played the game more I'd get quicker. I only played enough to get to try the P1!

275not599

9 March 2017
Won't happen for a number of reasons and silly anyway because at this level it's about the joy of driving the car at least as much as the stats. Come to think of it, at any level.

hare1964

9 March 2017
It has rather amazed me that VW have again pulled another cheat stunt over the motoring press with their claim that the Hurican has chewed 5 seconds out of the 918. With careful editing I could get a morris minor to look as if it goes around the ring in less than 7 minutes. But with blind faith you motoring press print what you've been told without any second question. Compare the top speeds, the jumps in shadow position, the corner speeds back to back with a 7 minute 918 lap and you'll soon realise that lambo are just trying to gain a few more sales out of a tired design. I mean alarm bells should be ringing when an Italian car company delivers facts in the first place.. when VW are involved it should be considered a lie straight off the bat until proven otherwise by an independant 3rd party. Motoring press. ..consider your trousers well and truely pulled down.

James Dene

9 March 2017
The article draws attention to the tyres fitted to the car with 30 seconds the difference between a race tyre and a road tyre, apparently. This is an astonishing fact given how little we know about tyres and other prep enjoyed by the various 'fastest' contenders. I enjoyed the Lambo video, although I now realise how little we know about the vehicle involved. Was the car as a customer might drive it away from a showroom? If it wasn't, then the whole thing is a fraud.

eseaton

9 March 2017
I utterly detest the ongoing interest in road car times around the ring. It is just tediously irrelevant, and indeed counter-productive to what makes a car enjoyable to drive on the road. It is as absurd as judging a musical instrument on how loud it is, or a picture on how big it is. It is just not relevant.

275not599

10 March 2017
Like!

5wheels

14 March 2017
No matter what the car - unless you use the same driver for each then its not going to be an equal test. That makes the likes of you and me smile because all these driverless plastic mobiles are pushed tp the nether regions of our automotive brains and thrills

what's life without imagination

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Lamborghini Huracan

Lamborghini Huracán

Junior supercar shows what it can do with a conventional (better) steering set-up

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