Dodge Viper takes Nurburgring Record – sort of

Dodge Viper - new Nurburgring record

Back in 2008, the Dodge Viper ACR went to the Nurburgring and proved that cars built in the former Colonies really can go round bends, even bends at the ‘Green Hell’ of the Nurburgring.

Not only could the Dodge Viper go round bends, but it made a pretty good fist of blasting down the straights too, culminating in a record-breaking lap of 7:22.1.

But since 2008 things have moved on, with even a Lexus LFA posting a ‘Ring time of 7:14.64, so the SRT has returned to the Nordschleife to set about squeezing a bit more out of the Viper. But there was just one problem – the Viper is no longer in production.

That little issue was resolved by acquiring a pair of unsold 2010 Viper from Tomball Dodge and getting Viper specialists Mintgen Motorsport – based on the doorstep of the Nurburgring – to do some fettling ahead of a blat.

The result was a lap time of 7:12 and ‘Change’. Apparently we’ll get to know what the ‘change’ is once the record has been made official, but even if the ‘change’ is .99, that makes the Dodge Viper a chunk quicker than the LFA a few weeks ago.

All this information comes courtesy of the Viper Club of America, which claims the Dodge Viper has set a new production car record round the ‘Ring with this time.

Which seems a bit odd. By our reckoning, the time of 7:12 only puts them in fourth place, leapfrogging the LFA but still behind a pair of Radicals and a Gumpert. In fact, as you can see from the table below, a chunk behind the Radicals. The same Radicals that are so much a production car they actually drove from the UK to the Nurburgring on public roads to set their record.

Maybe the man from the Viper CLub means the Viper set a new record for cars from the former Colonies?

By Cars UK