Did McLaren’s P1 hyper hybrid set a 6-minute Nurburgring production-car lap record?

By Stephen Edelstein Published January 21, 2014

The McLaren P1 hybrid supercar already has some pretty impressive numbers to its credit, but it’s missing one thing: an official Nurburgring lap record.

McLaren previously announced that the P1 had lapped the infamous German racetrack in under seven minutes, putting it in contention for the record. However, officials wouldn’t reveal the actual time.

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Rumors suggested that time was close to 6 minutes, 30 seconds, but McLaren has remained mum.

Now, Autocar reports that the P1 did in fact make it around the Nurburgring in roughly 6 minutes, 30 seconds, citing an anonymous McLaren insider as its source.

If the report is accurate, the P1 is not only faster around the ‘Ring than its hybrid rival, the Porsche 918 Spyder (which completed a lap in 6 minutes, 57 seconds), it’s also the faster production car to ever lap the track.

The current production-car record is held by the Radical SR8 LM, which is essentially a scaled-down prototype-style race car with license plates. Its best lap was 6 minutes, 48 seconds, making the P1’s (potential) victory fairly decisive.

Then again, what do you expect from a carbon-fiber missile with a 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8 and an electric motor? Combined, they produce 903 horsepower, enough to hurl the P1 to 62 mph from a standstill in just under 3 seconds, and on to an estimated top speed of 217 mph.

So while a Nurburgring-record claim is definitely believable, it still needs to be confirmed. When it is, the P1 will officially be the ultimate performance, at least until the LaFerrari makes a trip to Germany.

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Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

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