Lexus LF-A mule unseats Porsche GT2 as King of the 'Ring

Although <A HREF="http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/214086/lexus_lfa.html">a brief story from England's Auto Express</A> is the original source of this welcome piece of news, <A HREF="http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/28/lexus-lf-a-unseats-porsche-gt2-as-king-of-the-ring/">the story by John Neff of Autoblog</A> adds informative tidbits and background information:

A Lexus LF-A mule has unofficially recorded a lap time on the Nordschleife of 7 minutes, 24 seconds. This is not in dispute. What is in dispute is how many seconds faster the LF-A's lap time is than that of the 2008 Porsche 911 GT2, the previous "King of the 'Ring" record holder. <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordschleife_fastest_lap_times#Miscellaneous_lap_times_of_road_cars">Wikipedia notes</A> that the fastest 911 GT2 driven around the Ring posted a lap time of 7 minutes, 32 seconds and was driven by Walter Röhrl, Porsche's company test driver and accomplished WRC driver and road racing pilot. Porsche was so proud of the feat that it produced a snazzy video of the run that you can <A HREF="http://videos.streetfire.net/video/2e410489-1acf-4e8a-b036-9a0e00026993.htm">watch here.</A> Auto Express, however, which reported on the LF-A's remarkable lap time, claims that the fastest 911 GT2 lap time on the Nurburgring is 7 minutes, 25 seconds, but we could find no evidence on the web of a stock 911 GT2 ever posting a time that fast. Also note that a handful of other cars have posted lap times, but all are either tuner cars or limited production boutique cars like the Pagani Zonda F.

Nevertheless, the Lexus LF-A's time is remarkable and puts in a class normally populated by purpose-built tuner cars. Its 4.8L V10 churns out a reported 552bhp while slapping the needle against a 9,000 rpm redline. A 210 mph top speed is said to be the car's upper bound, which makes us shake our heads. This is, after all, the brand that brought us the sarcophagus of a car that is the LS sedan. The production LF-A should be able to repeat the performance, but we'll have to wait a while longer while the Lexus supercar finishes baking in the oven. In the meantime, for Pete's sake, someone ship a Corvette ZR1 to Germany!