Mercedes-Benz officially owns the production SUV Nürburgring lap record. The Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 S did the lap in 7 minutes 49.369 seconds. That bests the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio by over two seconds. It's no small task taking down the ridiculously quick Stelvio Quadrifoglio, but Mercedes' test driver apparently beat the Alfa's time on his first try.
Not only do we get to know the time, but you can also watch the whole lap in the video above. The GLC 63 S is no 911 GT2 RS around the 'Ring, but it sure does hustle with the right driver. Lapping the 503 horsepower SUV looks like more of a chore than in sports cars as the driver wrangles it around corners and crashes over rumble strips. For those wondering, the GLC 63 S has a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine. The Alfa has 2 horsepower on the Mercedes, but the torquey V8 has 516 pound-feet of torque to the Stelvio's 443 pound-feet. Perhaps the extra torque allowed the Mercedes to pull just a tad harder coming out of corners.
It's pretty surreal to see SUVs setting lap times this fast, and the bar just keeps getting set higher and higher. Plenty of high-powered sports cars of our past can't even beat some of these crossovers nowadays. We still prefer driving the original car versions of these car-based crossovers better, but it's pretty impressive what manufacturers are able to do with vehicles like these on the track. Lamborghini apparently sees performance potential in this kind of vehicle too, because it just declared the start of a Urus-only racing series.
Related video:
Not only do we get to know the time, but you can also watch the whole lap in the video above. The GLC 63 S is no 911 GT2 RS around the 'Ring, but it sure does hustle with the right driver. Lapping the 503 horsepower SUV looks like more of a chore than in sports cars as the driver wrangles it around corners and crashes over rumble strips. For those wondering, the GLC 63 S has a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine. The Alfa has 2 horsepower on the Mercedes, but the torquey V8 has 516 pound-feet of torque to the Stelvio's 443 pound-feet. Perhaps the extra torque allowed the Mercedes to pull just a tad harder coming out of corners.
It's pretty surreal to see SUVs setting lap times this fast, and the bar just keeps getting set higher and higher. Plenty of high-powered sports cars of our past can't even beat some of these crossovers nowadays. We still prefer driving the original car versions of these car-based crossovers better, but it's pretty impressive what manufacturers are able to do with vehicles like these on the track. Lamborghini apparently sees performance potential in this kind of vehicle too, because it just declared the start of a Urus-only racing series.
Related video:
Sign in to post
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Continue