Ever since Lamborghini released the news and video of their new Nurburgring Nordschleife record lap with the Lamborghini Huracan Performante a few days ago the internet has exploded. Car enthusiasts and media alike shared the news and video every where and as with most Nurburgring records it also raised a lot of questions. So far nothing unusual, right?

Well, after watching the video a couple of times and comparing it to some other record videos the Nurburgring fans Ring Freaks, BTG and Misha Charoudin aka Boosted Boris are on to something that is not quite right with it.

So what is up with the video? Inside the video there is an overlay which displays the rev counter, gear and not unimportantly the speed. Now different manufacturers use different types of systems to record and display the speed. Lamborghini probably used a GPS module which is not 100% accurate but should still give quite a good idea.

Lamborghini Huracan Performante

Now what is strange about the Huracan Performante lap if you compare it to the 918 Spyder lap and even the Aventador SV lap is that the Huracan Performante is going at a consistently slower speed than the Aventador SV and Porsche 918 Spyder – yet takes less time to do the lap and segments of the lap. You can see some examples in the video above.

Is it possible to have a lower start and finish speed and yet travel the same distance in less time? No. So that brings us to what can cause this difference.

1. The speed displayed in the video is incorrect. Possible.
2. The video is sped up to reach the desired laptime. Also possible.
3. The speeds displayed in the all other videos is incorrect. Unlikely.
4. Magic. Well…

Back to the facts; The record lap of the Huracan Performante is more than 35 seconds a lap faster than the regular Huracan as tested by Sport Auto. 35 seconds is a huge difference on the ring. And this particular record is the ‘production car’ lap record. This means that the car should be on street legal tires and otherwise in production spec. Latest when the first customer Performantes are delivered owners and media alike can test if the Performante is really capable of settings a 6 minute 52 ring lap or not.

Update: In the meantime the web is presenting new and edited versions of the record lap video.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Hey moron, it’s about average speed over the lap. Not top speeds. If a car handles better and maintains Corner speed its going to be fasterv over a lap also breaking is hugely important. Entering a corner fast and breaking later while maintaining control will give a better handling car a big advantage. We know by common sense the Huracan gets its advantage here vs the SV and 918 because let’s face it it’s a less powerful cat by some margin. Need proof? Look at the championship winning recipe redbull F1 cars that Seb Vettel drove. They were some slowest trap speeds in the field but still dominated around Monza….. Where it was believed top speed would prevail…

    • Just to add, breaking performance can make a huge difference. Given the 918 is a bit of a pig vs the performante, id imagine it’s saving a bulk of its time under breaking. (Braking later means saved time even if top speed and cornering speed are the same).. And yes I’m sure the GPS data on the speedos aren’t all that accurate over a lap in some locations given the tree cover etc that will effect readings and cause spikes. And sorry for calling you a moron. I’m sure you aren’t. However you missed this fact in your argument and it’s extremely important. If you did an analysis of when each car braked And factored it in I bet you would realize why the performante had a quicker time. So you are a bit of a Porsche fan boy and all that’s obvious or at least bias but try to give credit where credit is due.

  2. I kindly invite you to do a frame by frame analysis on brake points and speed lost / gained over the pre corner distances to support your theory.

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