The Alfa Romeo Giulia QV once lapped the Nürburgring in an unofficial seven minutes and 39 seconds, making it quite possibly the quickest production sedan to lap the Green Hell. And then a Porsche Panamera beat it. Not by much, but numbers are numbers. And now it seems like the Giulia QV just stole the title back.
The 2017 Giulia QV lapped the Ring with a time of 7:32 in a video uploaded this week, which is seven seconds quicker than its previous record.
As Road & Track pointed out, the driver for both laps is Fabio Francia, an Alfa Romeo and Maserati test driver. So what’s with the difference in time?
Transmissions, as it turns out.
An Alfa spokesperson told me that the first lap—the 7:39 one—was set in a manual transmission (which, holy fuck, that’s faster than a Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 and a Mercedes SLR McLaren). The 7:32 lap was accomplished with the ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic, which is most likely the same one that’s in all the other FCA products.
I also asked if these were “official” lap times, which the person would not deny nor confirm. But, uh, just watch the video. It’s got a timer and everything. Looks legit.
(H/t to Anthony!)