The question of how fast a performance car is usually brings about the topic of its Nurburgring lap time. While it may hold a lot of weight with carmakers conducting research and development based on feedback from testing on the ‘Ring, we shouldn’t forget one of the other legendary tracks that has a long and illustrious history with racing.
The roads on the Isle of Man has been described as one of the best driving routes and every year, those very roads are closed for the annual Isle of Man TT that sees the race snake through a 60 kilometer stretch.
Although the race is run by motorcycles, some drivers that have ahd steel replacement surgery in their nut sacks do give the tight course a run in their cars. The crotch rockets can complete the loop in just under 18 minutes and up to now, the fastest a car has gone around it is 21 minutes, by Tony Pond in a Rover 827 Vitesse, averaging 161km/h around the course.
Subaru decided that it would like a ring record of its own and logically speaking, the Nurburgring is a little over their league at the moment. So they sent British rally driver Mark Higgins in a bone stock Subaru Impreza WRX STI to make the record theirs.
The car is stock, save for the safety bits like a roll-cage, racing harness and fire extinguisher. Also, if you would like to get picky, the springs and dampers were adjusted to suit the bumpy surface of the Isle of Man.
Higgins not only broke, he obliterated Pond’s old record by a whopping tow minutes, completing the loop in 19:56:7, averaging a 182km/h.
“Setting the record was both the most exhilarating and the most frightening thing I have ever done,” said Higgins after the run. From the video below, we well and truly agree with you Higgins. The video shows the car loosing it after bottoming out on full throttle in sixth gear on the straight at 240km/h but Higgins managed to save it with some mighty impressive driving and handwork.
What separates the men from the boys is perhaps how Higgins could have a laugh about it with his co-pilot after the incident and even managed to demonstrate some of his French.
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Source: CarScoop and YouTube
