SEAT Leon bags new 'ring lap record
Leon now fastest estate car round the Nordschleife; time to book a C63 wagon and Eurotunnel ticket?
SEAT insists the ST used to achieve this was unchanged from the production car, here fitted with the manual gearbox and mythical Performance Pack featuring bigger brakes, Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres and - in its most extreme form - no air-con. Or air vents. Even if they did have a few tricks up their sleeve, to crack a time that a dozen or so years ago wouldn't have shamed a 911 Turbo is pretty impressive.
'Darling, could you just pop to Adenau for some milk?'
Then of course Honda this year came along and said, ner-ner, we'd beaten you all along with our Civic Type R with a time of 7min 50sec achieved last year. Albeit in a production car not yet in production ... and quite obviously caged and with significant interior parts (passenger seat included) removed.
Obviously in the world of virtual Nurburgring trophies SEAT now has the fastest production ESTATE record. Presumably VW could pinch that quite easily with its more powerful four-wheel drive Golf R estate, which would mean SEAT could insert the words 'front-driven'. If Honda nicks that with a Type R Tourer record (this is supposition - no such car has been announced) then SEAT would have to come back with a fastest estate with a roofbox, or some such nonsense.
The manual Cupra ST does weigh 45kg more than the hatchback at 1,440kg, and is two tenths slower to 62mph at 6.1 seconds. But it's apparently faster on the long straights thanks to extra slipperiness of the body shape. What we don't know is whether it was achieved with the rear seats up or down. That's an extra two seconds right there.
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Still, pretty good effort I'd say
Not that any ring record would affect my buying decision in any way whatsoever...
Don't forget that as temperatures rise in May there's more evaporation, so you'll need to top up your indicator fluid more often.
These Nurburgring times are pointless meaningless drivel.
I kind of respect Maclaren's take on it with the P1. "Yes, we went round the Nurburgring jolly fast, but we're not telling you how fast, so there"
These Nurburgring times are pointless meaningless drivel.
This stuff works wonders in the showrooms. It makes the car a purchase with the heart as well as the head as they buy into it and feel proud of what they've bought. Engineered marketing but you cant blame anyone for it, the firms sell more cars and the consumer are happier with where their hard earned is going.
Us 'people in the know' can vote with our feet and buy the cars we feel to have true merit in whatever guise, but effectively the motives are exactly the same.
These Nurburgring times are pointless meaningless drivel.
This stuff works wonders in the showrooms. It makes the car a purchase with the heart as well as the head as they buy into it and feel proud of what they've bought. Engineered marketing but you cant blame anyone for it, the firms sell more cars and the consumer are happier with where their hard earned is going.
Us 'people in the know' can vote with our feet and buy the cars we feel to have true merit in whatever guise, but effectively the motives are exactly the same.
That really is quite sad.
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