A BMW M2 gifted with well-chosen aftermarket parts has lapped the Nurburgring in an eyebrow-raising 7:22 - this was supposed to be the punchline of an interesting Green Hell campaign.
Nevertheless, while the M division car turned track toy did achieve its purpose, the agitated behavior of the man behind the steering wheel has led to a... classic BMW driver debate.
We like to call these guys Ring Wolves, as they know the track like the back of their driving gloves and drive circuit-tuned machines that are relatively affordable - the 7:32 time of the custom SEAT Leon Cupra we've shown you in the past is an example as good as any.
And this BMW, along with the team that built it, led by driver Lucian Gavris, is part of the Ring Wolf pack we mentioned above, as these guys hang out together at the infamous German track, whether we're talking about car customizing or lap time-setting activities.
Returning to the 7:22.6 result of this M2, the feat is certainly impressive - for instance, a Porsche Cayman GT4 tuned by Porsche-owned Manthey Racing lapped the Nurburgring in 7:29 earlier this year.
While mentioning stock car Nubrugring times in such a story brings the kind of apple-to-orange comparos, we'll spare many afficionados of the Google search and drop the 7:20 Nordschleife time of the factory-trim Porsche 911 GT3 RS PDK here. Now, before you sell your stock supercar and aim for one of these Ring Wolf machines, do keep in mind that such vehicles are not exactly decent when it comes to street driving and they're usually no strangers to the check engine light.
While we don't have the entire list of mods the Bimmer was gifted with, we can talk about the main ingredients, which we've lifted off the Instagram account of the driver.
This M2, which comes with a manual talks to the asphalt via a KW suspension, while its wheel-tire combo features OZ Racing rims shod in Dunlop rubber.
The 3.0-liter straight-six has been gifted with an Akrapovic exhaust and a mcchip-dkr ECU remap (the Ring rumor mill also talks about a turbo upgrade, but we wouldn't bet on that).
Other custom bits and pieces include Recaro racing seats and a Lite Box lightweight battery.
We can see the driver overtaking on the right, which, for safety reasons, is forbidden and the mid-pass honing shown on a separate occasion doesn't help with this.
The problem here is that the line between a Touristenfahrten public track day and a race, or a manufacturer test day (Koenigsegg One:1 Ring adventures, anybody?) is rather thin and the behavior of this BMW M2 driver seems to cross it.
Let's talk about the car and it's 7:22,6 Nordschleife lap time first
With social media allowing Ring lap times to become more important then ever, we can see a new breed of track day aficionados making their way into Nurburgring headlines.We like to call these guys Ring Wolves, as they know the track like the back of their driving gloves and drive circuit-tuned machines that are relatively affordable - the 7:32 time of the custom SEAT Leon Cupra we've shown you in the past is an example as good as any.
And this BMW, along with the team that built it, led by driver Lucian Gavris, is part of the Ring Wolf pack we mentioned above, as these guys hang out together at the infamous German track, whether we're talking about car customizing or lap time-setting activities.
Returning to the 7:22.6 result of this M2, the feat is certainly impressive - for instance, a Porsche Cayman GT4 tuned by Porsche-owned Manthey Racing lapped the Nurburgring in 7:29 earlier this year.
While mentioning stock car Nubrugring times in such a story brings the kind of apple-to-orange comparos, we'll spare many afficionados of the Google search and drop the 7:20 Nordschleife time of the factory-trim Porsche 911 GT3 RS PDK here. Now, before you sell your stock supercar and aim for one of these Ring Wolf machines, do keep in mind that such vehicles are not exactly decent when it comes to street driving and they're usually no strangers to the check engine light.
While we don't have the entire list of mods the Bimmer was gifted with, we can talk about the main ingredients, which we've lifted off the Instagram account of the driver.
This M2, which comes with a manual talks to the asphalt via a KW suspension, while its wheel-tire combo features OZ Racing rims shod in Dunlop rubber.
The 3.0-liter straight-six has been gifted with an Akrapovic exhaust and a mcchip-dkr ECU remap (the Ring rumor mill also talks about a turbo upgrade, but we wouldn't bet on that).
Other custom bits and pieces include Recaro racing seats and a Lite Box lightweight battery.
Now, about that... classic BMW driver controversy
The first two minutes of the footage below, which comes from Lucian's YouTube channel, pretty much show why the shenanigan is getting its fair share of pointed fingers across social media platforms.We can see the driver overtaking on the right, which, for safety reasons, is forbidden and the mid-pass honing shown on a separate occasion doesn't help with this.
The problem here is that the line between a Touristenfahrten public track day and a race, or a manufacturer test day (Koenigsegg One:1 Ring adventures, anybody?) is rather thin and the behavior of this BMW M2 driver seems to cross it.