They didn’t tease it for nothing; Seat’s new Leon Cupra 280 has set a new Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record for front-wheel drive production cars with a time of 7m58.44s. That’s almost 10 seconds faster than the previous record for FWD production cars, set by the Renault Megane RS Trophy in 2011 (8m07.97s).
The Seat Leon Cupra 280 was driven by touring car champion Jordi Gene at an average speed of 96.3 mph (154.98 km/h), with the car hitting a maximum 150.4 mph (242.04 km/h) through the Tiergarten section. Seat says the record was set in dry conditions, at an air temperature of 10 degrees Celsius and a track temperature of 8 degrees Celsius.
The carmaker also states that the Cupra was standard production spec and was fitted with the optional Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires.
Now, a quick look through the list of manufacturer-timed Nürburgring laps reveals the Leon Cupra proved to be faster than some impressive machines like the Corvette C6 Z51 (7m59s), Dodge Viper SRT-10 (2005, 7m59s) and BMW M3 E92 (2007, 8m05s). Scroll down to watch the full lap.
By Dan Mihalascu
Update: If the video player doesn’t work, click this link to watch it
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