Every car maker on the planet seems to obsessed with breaking a Nurburgring record. And who can blame them. Every time a new claim comes in people like us write about it, and that gives them publicity that would cost a fortune to buy. Probably the biggest spat this year has been over the Nissan GT-R Nurburgring record, which Porsche rubbished saying the GT-R Nissan used wasn’t road-legal. But they’ve now gone quiet on that.
But another record is probably about to cause a few rumblings. Gumpert has revealed that the Gumpert Apollo S lapped the Nurburgring in 7:11.57. Which according to Gumpert is a new Nurburgring lap record for a production car. Perhaps Gumpert hasn’t heard that a Radical SR8 did the ‘Ring in 6:55. Still, an impressive run.
But it’s hardly surprising the Gumpert achieved such a cracking time. It is about as close as you get to a road-going race car. Its 4.2 litre, twin-turbo Audi V8 will get to 120mph in less than 9 seconds and on up to a top speed of over 220 mph. So slow it isn’t. And 26-year-old Florian Gruber did a sterling job of piloting the Apollo round the ‘Ring.
Gripes apart vis-à-vis the Radical record, the Gumpert Apollo S is a huge achievement when you consider it comes properly equipped with leather and aircon.
Even if it does have a racing sequential ‘box and ground clearance of a fag paper (that’s ‘fag’ as in cigarette, for our Colonial Cousins!).
KAREN WOOD says
Could you tell me if you can purchase a model of the gumpert appollo s or a poster, calenders etc. my son collects model cars and he saw the gumpert several years ago on a trump card.
seeing it last week on Top Gear he mentioned he would like something to do with the Gumpert for xmas. thanks for reading this karen.
CarsUK says
Sorry, we don’t know anyone who does posters of the Gumpert. Gumpert themselves do a few bits in their shop, but they are more for the actual car than anything else. Can anyone reading help Karen?