[DeTomaso] 4 " piiiipes

[Adin, David]

Let's see, I'll need the 4" pipes, a little compression, some heads that
breathe, a cam from hell and some spectacular attachments.

 

David, not short of dreams

 

A Pagani Zonda F has set a new lap record for the Nurburgring
Nordschleife.

A Zonda F Clubsport covered the 12.8 miles and 73 corners of the "Green
Hell" in 7:27:82. 

That beats the previous production car lap record, held by a Porsche
<http://www.speedtv.com/articles/automotive/lifestyle/41062/##>  Carrera
GT, by just two tenths of a second.

As you'd expect, the Zonda F Clubsport is a bit of a beast. Nestling
within its carbon-fiber chassis and bodywork is a 7.3-liter AMG Mercedes
<http://www.speedtv.com/articles/automotive/lifestyle/41062/##>  V12
producing 641hp, and yet it weighs just 2550lb. No wonder Pagani claims
a 0-62mph time of 3.6sec and a top speed of almost 215mph.

The Italian firm also says that it can pull 1.4G in a corner and
decelerate from 125mph to a standstill in 4.4sec. Useful, that, when
you're at the Nordschleife.

The only piece of information we haven't bean able to glean from Pagani
is who was at the wheel. All we do know is that they are a bit handy.

Of course, there is the argument of what exactly constitutes a
production car, because back in 2003, Autocar made it rather quicker in
a production Radical SR3 turbo
<http://www.speedtv.com/articles/automotive/lifestyle/41062/##> .

With ex-BTCC racer Phil Bennett at the wheel, we lapped in 7:19.7, a
whole nine seconds quicker than the Pagani. And British firm Radical has
since managed to send one of its cars
<http://www.speedtv.com/articles/automotive/lifestyle/41062/##>  round
in under seven minutes.

Of course, there is a new Zonda R on the way, which has an extra 50hp
over the F Clubsport, so it's just possible that Pagani might beat its
own record.