The Dodge Viper ACR is the latest car to claim the production car lap record around the Nürburgring’s 20.8km north loop. The folk at Dodge’s SRT factory (Street & Racing Technology) got a bit darn sick of everyone else grabbing the limelight, so they packed up two ACRs and shipped them off to the Ring to remind everyone who’s boss! With Dutchman Tom Coronel at the wheel the ACR recorded a best time of 7 minutes 22.1 seconds—putting it some 5.3 seconds ahead of the Corvette ZR1 and around 7 seconds quicker than Godzilla—the Nissan GT-R. The ACR initials mean American Club Racer, so while this is strictly a street legal car, a race tuned aero package, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup rubber, race developed suspension and brakes certainly give an indication as to the car’s target market. It’s no Saturday night poser. Then there’s the small—or should that be large—matter of the car’s whopping 8.4-litre V10 pumping out around 450kW (600bhp).

According to this Motor Trend article the Viper ACR ran three timed laps, the first  7:42, the second 7:35. So, you’d assume the final published lap of 7:22.1 is the best the car is capable of? Well, looking at this video of the lap Coronel clearly misses two gear shifts and there’s the somewhat bizarre habit of bouncing off the rev limiter so often. To be honest, the ACR doesn’t look like the easiest car to drive, but you can’t argue with that lap time!

Source: Motor Trend via CarAdvice