YAHOO AUTOS
By Nicole Wakelin
You expect to hear about super cars setting mind-blowing times at Nürburgring. What you don’t expect to hear is that a Mini managed to tie the time of one of them and set its own record in the process.
The Mini in question got some special tuning by John Cooper Works that took its 1.6-liter turbocharged engine up to 286 horsepower. That’s a boost of about 78 over the original. They also fitted it with a a Drexler mechanical limited-slip differential and a host of lightweight components that shaved 385.8 pounds of weight.
The record-setting Mini rode on Dunlop Direzza 03G street-legal semi slicks and was in the hands of Sport Auto‘s test driver Christian Gebhardt.
What kind of time did he manage to set? The Schirra Mini John Cooper Works GTS posted a lap time of 7 minutes and 44 seconds. This comes in 10 seconds less than the front-drive Renault that currently holds the record, but, that car keeps its title. That’s only because the Renault Mégane RS 275 Trophy-R is production while the Mini is not.
So, it might not get the official title, but it still sets a blistering time that ties the Pagani Zonda at 7:44 and even beats the likes of the Audi R8 V10 Plus (7:45) and Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera (7:46). Nicely done, Mini. Nicely done.
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