Wealthy American supercar nut James Glickenhaus is sick and tired of everyone’s unreliable Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time claims. To settle this for good, Glickenhaus wants to launch a “Road Cup” for road-legal cars to determine which street-legal car has the fastest ‘ring time once and for all.
Instead of relying on unverified manufacturer lap time claims such as the recent controversial time set by the Lamborghini Huracán Performante, Glickenhaus told Autocar that he wants to set up a time trial of sorts to run alongside the Nürburgring 24 Hour race. To beat any tire cheaters to the punch, any road cars in the competition would have to drive from Cologne, Germany, down to the Nürburgring on the same set of tires they’ll use to set their lap time.
One catch: he hasn’t gotten the go-ahead from the Nürburgring to actually do this. Glickenhaus told Autocar:
[Nürburgring authorities are] reading about it in the press. They’re going to be like “what the hell is Jim doing?”
Still, it’s an idea we can all get behind. We can’t even trust automakers to get emissions and fuel economy claims right anymore, much less WAY more important stuff like who’s actually the fastest around the Nürburgring’s grueling Nordschleife course. Definitely.
Especially you, Volkswagen Group. You crushed our hopes, dreams and environment, and killed any shred of trust we had in you guys. What kind of gall do you have in just expecting us to believe your Lambo time? If anything, y’all should have led off with the data and gone from there.
We’re with Jim here. Put up or show up, automakers: and let it be independently verified by someone not tied to any of the #brands.
Glickenhaus is probably best known for building the insane SCG003, a car he’s raced at the Nürburgring and whose roadgoing SCG003S variant will head into production soon—which no doubt means he has a Nürburgring time of his own to set soon.
Glickenhaus already believes the SCG003S will be a contender for shoving the Huracán Performante’s pointy little nose in the dirt, as its race car version already set a ludicrously quick 6:20 lap time. So, we’re going to need someone who’s not him to verify that road car’s lap time—just in case.