This is the tidiest lap of the Nürburgring you’ll see today
Want to see how a lap of the Nordschleife should be done? Look no further. It may ‘only’ be a mk3 Mazda MX-5, but it’s a heavily tuned one and driven – apparently – by a Koenigsegg test driver.
With a few choice mods – including a raised rev limit, an ECU remap, a race exhaust and coilover suspension, as well as the removal of goodies like air con and power steering – it’s capable of a 7m 37s bridge-to-gantry time, which puts it in the same chunk of the ‘Ring lap leader board as the Lexus LFA, BMW M4 GTS and Ferrari 458 Italia.
Or does it? Its modest 130mph (209kph) top speed is regularly reached and sustained, and from watching this lap we have to conclude a good chunk of its lap time – within a minute of the record-breaking Lamborghin Aventador SVJ – is down to its driver.
The lines are so clean. The steering may look rather busy at times, but the actual bonnet cam shows us the car isn’t untidily sliding with its driver looking through the side window. There are flares of revs but no loss of control; it’s a car driven right at its limits but never over them, even with nibbles of kerb and absolutely all of the track being used.
Just one car passes the MX-5 during the lap, and surprise surprise, it’s a Nissan GT-R. All we’re left wondering by the end of it is how much quicker the LFA, M4, 458 et al would be if they’d borrowed this Mazda’s driver…
