Snake Bitten: Nürburgring

Motor Trend is reporting that a 2009 Viper ACR just lapped the Nürburgring in 7 minutes, 22 seconds. Four seconds faster than the ZR1, and 7 seconds faster than the Sony Playstation Gran Turismo -R. All hail the new king. Quite frankly, I was expecting better. I can already hear the Corvette crowd screaming "but the ACR was on race tires!" The Nissan fanboys don't have this right, as I'd still bet a beer the Skyline in question was on cheater tires. At least the Viper boys were honest. Let' s analyze the in-car video shall we? Click the picture to view...

Constant repeated mashing of the rev limiter, missed shifts, jerky tankslappers abound, etc... Perhaps a rabid monkey on crack should take a stab at it - the pushrods deserve a break. The 7:22 might be on race tires, but it's nowhere near a perfect lap the way GM did. My prediction: On the same tires, the ZR1 and ACR would be pretty damn close... Thanks to elanderholm at corner-carvers.com for the tip.

Update: I created a split-screen video to compare the ACR and ZR1 record laps. Also, the Viper Club of America has since released better footage of the ACR lap with telemetry.