Remember the lightly nutty Subaru WRX STI Type RA NBR we showed you a while back? Subaru tells us the much suffixed STI has set a lap around the Nürburgring in just 6m 57.5s, making it the fastest four-door to have done so.

In the world of Nürburgring lap times – shadier than a Frank Miller graphic novel – that pegs it at just half a second slower than a Porsche 918 Spyder. Which is a bona-fide hypercar featuring much power at its disposal.

It’s also comfortably quicker than the Lamborghini Aventador SV nutjob (6m 59s). We’re told the time was achieved “using the Nürburgring timing equipment and was officially verified by track officials”. Righto.

Still, not bad for a modified four-door saloon. The clue’s in the mouthful of a name, really. The Type RA bit stands for ‘Record Attempt’; the sole reason for this car’s existence. We assume the NBR means, well, the Nürburgring.

For such an attempt, you won’t be surprised to learn this little Scooby went to market and came back with a lot of rally-infused aggression. And by market, we mean Prodrive, who built the thing. There’s a roll-cage and a redesigned aero-pack that includes DRS and enables 650lb ft of downforce – the only currency super-saloons and supercars trade in these days.

Then there’s the engine. It’s a modified 2.0-litre turbo boxer, featuring a 75mm intake, 25 PSI of turbo boost, and a modified WRC gearbox with paddle-shifts (20ms fast) running through all-wheel-drive. The net result is in excess of 600bhp. Not bad. Not bad at all.

“We brought the WRX STI Type RA NBR Special here to set a record and call attention to the WRX STI Type RA that we will launch later this year,” explains Subaru comms manager Dominick Infante. Ah yes, there’ll be a production-spec WRX STI Type RA available to purchase, with actual money, later on in the year.

Sadly, that road-car does without the 600bhp of this NBR Special, instead producing somewhere around the 310bhp mark. Should still be a riot, mind.

We’ll update this story once the video has landed, so stay tuned…