Them's fightin' words, but when we're talking about a V10-powered version of the Audi R8, you'd better be taking them seriously. According to an Audi insider as reported by Auto Motor und Sport in Sweden, the more powerful R8 will set a new lap record for a production car at the Nurburgring. That would mean coming in under the 7:26 lap time claimed by the Corvette ZR1 (and taken by the Pagani Zonda F), and faster than the Nissan GT-R's 7:29, but the big question remains whether it could out-gun the GT-R V-Spec's purported 7:25.
The R8 V10 – with whatever name it will adopt – is expected to make its production-guise debut at the Paris Motor Show this coming October. That'll make for some delicious eye-candy, but the real treat will be to see how the German supercar holds up against the Americans and the Japanese on the 'Ring.
There is no shortage of automakers out there claiming to make the ultimate "race car for the road", but few of them can touch the Ultima GTR. While others try to make their road cars as close to racing cars as possible, the British sportscar-maker set about making their Noble-based racing car as close to a road car as possible. The result is blistering performance, with the latest GTR720 setting several Guinness-verified world records, including a 0-60 time of 2.6 seconds, a quarter mile below ten seconds and a 0-100-0 time in 9.4. With those numbers in the books, Sport Auto Magazine set its sights on setting a new Nurburgring road car lap record.
Unfortunately, after booking two, half-hour sessions at the 'Ring, the heavens opened up and soaked the track, so the attempt was aborted. The current record, held by the Pagani Zonda F Clubsport, stands at 7:27, but Ultima ambitiously projects that its car could undercut that with what would be a staggeringly fast lap time under 6 minutes, 55 seconds. Sounds impossible? Consider the performance stats quoted above, and that the lightweight track demon has hit a top speed of 231 mph. That was with the previous gearing setup, but with a taller fifth gear ratio, Ultima thinks it can reach even higher speeds. After the disappointment of a failed attempt due to the bad weather, the company's founder Ted Marlow turned around and headed back to England, claiming to have hit 220mph on a derestricted Autobahn along the way.
