Mercedes-AMG GT3 Conquers Famous Australian Mountain in 117 Seconds

You may know by now that I've got a long list of automotive dreams I want to fulfill during my lifetime. There are many cars to drive and race tracks to experience. If I had to make a short list, I could easily select one circuit from the following continents: Nordschleife (Europe), Laguna Seca (North America), Tsukuba (Asia), and Mount Panorama (Australia).

I owe my love for the latter to a game called Toca Race Driver 3. Need for Speed became boring for me after Underground 2. And it was the Codemasters title that kept me going for several years before switching to Assetto Corsa. Racing V8 Supercars around Bathurst increased my adrenaline levels as few things had before. It's no wonder I like it so much, seeing that even Kevin Estre mentioned its similarities to the Green Hell. This guy ran a sub-7-minute lap around the Nordschleife in 2018, driving a Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

But that's beside the point now. Australia's Mount Panorama Circuit is a 3.861-mile (6.123 km) track that requires a potent combination of skills and courage. You can reach speeds of over 186 mph (300 kph) and deal with a 571 ft (174 m) vertical difference between the lowest and highest points, navigating through 23 corners. It can narrow very fast, especially at high speeds, and downhill sections are challenging for both man and machine.

The track has been around for almost a century, but its most recent conqueror goes back even further in history. Mercedes celebrated its 130th motorsport anniversary- some car manufacturers haven't been here for that long. For the Bathurst 12 Hour race, Mercedes-AMG set out for an exciting challenge. It put Jules Gounon behind the wheel of an unrestricted 650-hp GT3 car, and the Frenchman delivered.

He broke the track record twice on Friday, but that wasn't enough for him. Early Saturday morning, he gave it his best shot, stopping the clock at 1:56.605. That translates to an average speed of 119.19 mph (191.82 kph). I've included two videos of him driving: one showing the POV perspective and another from outside the car. Seeing him hit 191 mph (308 kph) makes you want a virtual lap- that's how it affects me anyway.

Most of the previous lap records were set by drivers from either New Zealand or Australia, and Shane van Gisbergen's lap from 2016 was about five seconds slower. I think SVG would also like to go in an unrestricted GT3 car. I'm off to play some Gran Turismo 7; this news got my blood pumping faster just by hearing the V8 sounds.