There must be something in the air. On Friday, we brought you news about Romain Dumas and Volkswagen breaking records at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Just five days after Dumas’ made it to the top of the mountain, his colleagues at Porsche Motorsport—the team with which he won Le Mans in 2016—have gone and shattered another record some thought would never be broken. The track is the 12.9-mile (20.8km) Nürburgring Nordschleife, and Porsche factory driver Timo Bernhard drove a Porsche 919 Evo around it in just 5:19.55.
35 years ago
Until now, the fastest man to ever lap the Nordschleife was the late Stefan Bellof. By the time of his run in 1983, the track was considered too dangerous for Formula 1, but little else had changed since the 1920s. Nordschleife was still workable for Group C though, which held its 1983 1000kms of Nürburgring there. During qualifying for the race, Bellof—driving a works Porsche 956—lapped the place in 6:11.13. (There’s no in-car footage of his run, but teammate Derek Bell did carry a camera for a practice lap that isn’t that much slower.)
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