2009 Dodge Viper ACR Sets Nurburgring Lap Record

Watch the Viper's record-breaking lap HERE

After Nissan announced in May of this year that its 480-horsepower, all-wheel-drive GT-R lapped Germany's infamous 20.8-km (12.9 miles) Nurburgring Nordschleife in a time of 7:29, Viper people became restless. Then, just a month later, following Chevrolet's declaration that its 638-horsepower supercharged Corvette ZR1 was the king of the hill, breaking the GT-R's record with a time of 7:26, Viper people became downright mad. Not the folks who work for Dodge, mind you, but the members of the Viper Club of America, a group of Viper fanatics that in fact stretches its arms well beyond America, as far as Japan and Germany. Sick and tired of hearing about other cars setting records at the Nordschleife, they wanted to see their pride and joy-namely, Dodge's new track-attacking 600-horsepower Viper ACR (American Club Racer)-take a shot at the record books. But what could they do about it?

Well, they could (and did) bug Dodge-specifically, the Street & Racing Technology team-to the point that SRT said, What the heck, let's go for it. So SRT rented the Nordschleife for a half-day (at a cost of $2000 Euro per hour), shipped two ACRs over to Germany, hired a pro driver through Zakspeed (a race team that runs Vipers in the ADAC Zurich 24h Race at the Nurburgring), and hoped for good weather and, more important, a lap time quicker than 7:26. And, for posterity, the SRT team figured having a media outlet on-hand was a wise idea, so they invited Motor Trend, and yours truly was fortunate enough to get the call.