TThe Huracán Performante pictured at the Nürburgring with its development team after clinching the lap record.
COLOGNE: When Lamborghini officially takes the wraps off the Huracán Performante at the Geneva motor show on March 7, it will be revealing the world's fastest series production car.
The latest iteration of the current-generation compact supercar which, when it goes on sale towards the end of 2017, will be offered as a stripped back, lighter, more ferocious version of the standard 10-cylinder 600hp Huracán, has broken the Nürburgring lap record for a production car. It set a blistering time of six minutes, 52.01 seconds.
There are a host of ways for measuring speed from 0-100kph time or standing quarter mile to its out-and-out top speed. All of which is why the Nürburgring Nordschleife - that legendary 20km+ racing circuit in Germany - has in recent years become the only universally recognised test of any supercar's genuine performance credentials.
When lightweight, single-seater road-legal racing cars are removed from the list, the fastest ever real car - i.e., with a roof, doors, seats for at least two adults - to lap the green hell is the Porsche 918 Spyder, a multimillion dollar hybrid hypercar. It set a time of six minutes and 57 seconds back in 2013.
The two things that make Lamborghini's achievement so impressive are that firstly this new benchmark has been set by a very traditional car without hybrid assistance or other 21st century technological innovations. It doesn't even come with turbochargers. And secondly, it broke the record back in October while the car was still officially in its development stage, yet has somehow managed to keep it a complete secret until today.
"To make this happen is something that every one of the R&D team who worked on this car can share in: it will forever be a defining moment in their careers," said company CEO Stefano Domenicali.
"We wanted to achieve the Nürburgring victory in advance of the Performante's launch, which was a challenge in terms of weather and availability of the Nordschleife. Not only did we take the lap record, we took it by some seconds!"
The Lamborghini Huracán Performante will be officially unveiled on March 7 along with the final specifications as to what's under the bonnet and what the company's done to the car to make it king of the Nürburgring.
