Update: We’ve refreshed the list with the latest lap times, including those for the 2024 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT.
Over the last 20 years Nurburgring lap times have become as important a marketing tool for automakers as a neck-snapping 0-60 mph figure or continent crushing top speed.
Nurburgring Nordshleife laptimes, that is. The Nordschleife is the original 1930s toll road that became too dangerous for the F1 crowd, who decamped to the modern Nurburgring GP circuit next door in 1984.
But the old circuit lives on. It still hosts the annual Nurburgring 24 Hour race (whose course blends the old and new tracks), it’s still open to tourist traffic and crazy taxi rides, and it’s where the car industry comes to test and develop its latest cars.
Take A Look: Nurburgring Live Webcams And 360º Panorama 2021
Beyond the outright production car record, carmakers often claim class records for EVs, SUVs and front-wheel drive cars, but that information isn’t always easy to find in one place so we’ve created this post as a one-stop place to view ‘Ring times. We’ll revisit and update it as and when a new champ appears.
Why Are There Two And Sometimes Three Different Lap Times?
A quick note about the lap times. You’ll find three different types of figures floating around on the web. Bridge-to-Gantry times are usually set on public Touristenfahrten days, because Joe Shmoe have-a-go heroes aren’t allowed to run complete laps.
The other, more credible kind of lap time, the 20.6 km (12.8 miles) record published by most manufacturers from the 1990s onwards, and by Germany’s Sport Auto magazine, isn’t technically a complete lap either, because it starts at the end of, and finishes at the start of, the old pit straight.
But in 2019 the company behind the Nurburgring added a true 20.832 km (12.94 miles) lap record, which caused some confusion because cars claiming new records wrongly appear at first glance to be slower than the cars they’re supposed to have beaten. We’ve published both, where available, to minimize mix-ups, and clicking on a hyperlink in any of the tables will take you to the original Carscoops story (usually with video) of each car’s original record. We’ve used the most credible official sources we can find for the numbers, but let us know if you think we’ve made any mistakes.
Production Cars
When Porsche’s 918 Spyder hypercar broke the 7-minute barrier in 2013 it almost seemed like alchemy. But just nine years later the 918 doesn’t even figure in the top 10 list of fastest cars, and machines like the 911 GT3 and GT3 RS can go faster for far less outlay. But nothing can lap as quickly as the Mercedes-AMG One hypercar, which ripped around the course in 6.35.18 in late October 2022, putting more than 12 seconds between it and the next fastest car on the list.
Overall Lap Record
The late Stefan Bellof’s staggering 6:11.13 lap set in a Porsche 956 endurance racer during qualifying for the 1983 Nurburgring 1000 Km race was so outrageously rapid, it remained unbroken for 35 years. But in 2018 Porsche used its spiritual successor, the hybrid-powered 919, to go almost a minute faster. Hovering just above the 6-minute mark is VW’s ID.R electric racer, while the Mercedes-AMG One that tops the production car table comes in fifth in this overall list, an impressive achievement for a fully street-legal car.
Sedans
Even with its optional $15k Track Package consisting of 20-inch Zero-G wheels, Goodyear Supercar 3R tires and carbon ceramic brakes, Tesla’s Model S Plaid couldn’t quite knock the Jaguar XE Project 8 from the top spot in the sedan category. But Porsche’s new Taycan Turbo GT did. Equipped with the Weissach package that deletes the back seats and even the motorized part of the charging port to save weight, the 1,092 hp (1,108 PS) EV took almost 18 seconds out of the Jag’s time.
SUV & Crossovers
If the idea of timing an SUV around a race track sounds absurd, you obviously haven’t driven the latest crop of super-SUVs. Despite their height and weight penalties, these high-rise muscle machines are almost as quick as the fastest sedans and can even shame a few sports cars. It’s interesting to note that while crowing about its supercar’s achievements at the ‘Ring, Lambo hasn’t revealed how quickly its Urus completes a lap. But given its Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT and Audi RS Q8 sister cars dominate the leaderboard, you might presume it’s not slow.
FWD Cars
The Renault Megane and Honda Civic Type R have been trading places at the top of the front-wheel drive record table for almost a decade, and it’s the Honda that’s the current champ. The record-breaking 2023 Civic was a Europe-only lightweight version called the S-grade the comes minus a stack of electrical goodies, but it’s still a genuine production model and that’s what matters. Looking further down the table, Volkswagen’s two-seater Mk7 Golf GTI Clubsport R briefly held the record in 2016, but the company claims it’s not planning a track-ready version of the Mk8 GTI.
Compact Cars
When the Nurburgring 1927 GmbH &Co. KG established the concept of a full lap record in 2019 it also established a class for compact cars. Most of the speediest compacts sold in Europe (where Nurburgring records are more relevant for marketing purposes) are front-wheel drive hot hatches, so they also appear on our FWD list. But Audi’s new all-wheel drive RS 3 Quattro sedan is quickest of all.
Electric Cars
The Volkswagen ID.R and NIO EP9 racers currently lead the EV table by a huge margin, but the production electric cars are catching up. Rimac’s Nevera has jumped to the head of the road-legal pack while the remaining slots go to various versions of the Tesla Model S and Porsche Taycan, which have been trading places for the past few years.
Porsche had previously reclaimed the fastest electric production car record by taking 2 seconds out of the Plaid’s time with the Taycan Turbo S, but the Plaid Track Pack later obliterated that lead by going more than 8 seconds faster than the Porsche. Now Porsche has fired back with the 1,092 hp (1,108 PS) Taycan GT, a lighter, two-seat version of its electric sedan that’s the most powerful road car the company has ever built.