All-out, banzai lap of the Nurburgring are not only cool to watch, but also mean big business for the automotive scene, starved for new marketing tools. Record laps of the famous Green Hell represent the today's equivalent of a rally victory or a touring car championship.
Today, we've learned that SEAT has managed to set a blistering lap time of 7 minutes and 58.4 seconds, making the new Leon Cupra 280 the fastest front-wheel drive production car ever. Basically, this makes it the Evo of our hot hatch generation.
Behind the wheel of the Cupra, touring car driver Jordi Gene made full use of the 280 hp turbo engine but opted for a more direct manual gearbox. The star SEAT driver managed an average track speed of 154,9 km/h (96.3 mph), helping him take the lead from Renault's Megane RS 265, the previous FWD record holder.
One thing is for sure, the SEAT is much more advanced and we think better looking than the Renault Megane RS. Real people want real cars with real practicality, and this Leon, available as a five-door with an automatic has that on its side as well.
While the Nurburgring record brings attention to the new Leon Cupra and its powerful TSI engine, we think these next commercials will actually sell cars. Spanish humor at its finest.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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