McLaren just might be aiming to take Lamborghini’s “King of the ‘Ring” crown after being spotted performing some test laps at the Nürburgring.
Last month, Lamborghini became the manufacturer to own the fastest production car that could circle Germany’s Nürburgring by posting a time of 6:44.97 in the new Aventador SVJ. It was an impressive feat from an impressive car, but is that time insurmountable with the current generation of supercars?
McLaren thinks not.
The Senna has been around since last March, but for some reason, McLaren has never thought to toss its hand into the ‘Ring. We have some pretty impressive performance figures, like a zero to sixty time of just 2.6 seconds and a top speed of 211 mph, but we still haven’t gotten any official lap times.
That might be about to change. Thanks to the YouTube channel Automotive Mike, we have some candid shots of the McLaren in a garage being fitted out for a day of running laps, as well as a few open-course laps of the Senna being followed by a Porsche chase car.
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It’s not unusual for a carmaker to send their car and driver to become familiar with the 12.9-mile course before making an actual record attempt. Time to get hyped.
But can the Senna defeat the Aventador SVJ? On paper, it looks promising. The Senna makes more power (789 hp compared to the Lambo’s 760 hp) and is much, much lighter than the SVJ (2,641 lbs compared to 3,362 lbs). The Senna also has nearly twice as much downforce, 1,763 lbs to 1,080 lbs.
However, the SVJ has all-wheel-drive and all-wheel-steering, two advantages that vastly improve its cornering abilities. The Nürburgring has plenty of fast straightaways for the Senna to pull ahead, but there are also some tight curves that the SVJ might beat the Senna in.
It’s a good matchup. The only way to know who will win is to wait for the Senna to post its time and then compare the results. If McLaren does go through with it, then the British carmaker will be able to add “King of the ‘Ring” to their marketing materials.
At least until the next car comes along.