Porsche and Nissan may squabble over who’s fastest around the Nürburgring, with their lap times coming in around the 7:20-plus mark, but when it comes to the ‘Ring there is only one king and it is the Pagani Zonda R.
The Italian supercar has blasted its competition out of the water with a Nürburgring lap time of just 6:47, though the Zonda R is a track-only car and the others are production models. Nevertheless, the time is still a record for a production-based model.
The Pagani Zonda R is also a full second faster than the Radical SR8 LM road-going racer, and even though the Pagani is a stripped-out race version of its road-going cousin, it’s still far more roadworthy and conventional than the Radical.
For those keeping score, both the Ferrari [NYSE:RACE] 599XX and Zonda R have run the 'Ring faster than Niki Lauda's 1975 Ferrari 312T F1 car. And the Zonda is just 36 seconds behind Stefan Bellof's all-time record of 6:11 in a Porsche 956. Slight variations in the overall length of the circuit run make these times not quite completely comparable but nevertheless stand as benchmarks for the sheer speed and capability of today's high-performance cars.
Powered by a race-bred 6.0-liter AMG V-12, the Zonda R is an exercise in extremes--extreme design, extreme materials and extreme performance. Rated at 750 horsepower and 524 pound-feet of torque, the Zonda R was designed with one intention in mind--ultimate performance at the race track without any implications of rules, except for safety, where no compromise is allowed.
