Seven minutes isn’t a whole bunch of time to do anything of importance… unless you’re supercar maker Lamborghini, of course. Then you can make a car that travels over 12 miles of the Nürburgring Nordschleife faster than it takes most people to make a sandwich.
The famous luxury exotic sports car maker recently took its new Aventador LP 750-4 Superveloce to the treacherous German track where it set a lap time just edging under the seven minute mark at 6:59.73.
Breaking the coveted sub-seven-minute threshold puts the Lambo in very exclusive company. Only three production cars have conquered “the green hell” within that time frame: The Radical SR8, SR8 LM, and the Porsche 918 Spyder. This knocks the Nissan GT-R Nimso’s 7:08.69 run out of the top four Nordschleife times. Run on P Zero Corsa tires, the entire lap with telemetry was recently uploaded onto Youtube for our vicarious enjoyment.
Revealed for the first time at this year’s Geneva Motor Show for the first time, the cranked-up Aventador houses a mid-mounted 6.5-liter V12 engine that pushes 750 horsepower to all four wheels by way of a seven speed single-clutch Independent Shifting Rod gearbox.
Lambo’s latest Superveloce can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in just 2.8 seconds and can, according to Lamborghini, top out at 217 mph. While it doesn’t hit that top speed on the run, the Aventador does reach 201 mph on the Nurburgring’s Döttinger Höhe straightaway before going hard on the carbon-ceramic brakes.
Interestingly, the Lamborghini, which is priced around $364,165, is only under the Porsche 918 by three seconds. This wasn’t even the regular version either, it was the 918 fitted with the Weissach Package, an iteration that sheds 100 pounds and sports aerodynamic add-ons. This version of the 887-horsepower hybrid is (or was. They’ve all been sold) $929,000 which may rub those uber-wealthy auto enthusiasts the wrong way.
The record-setting lap time sends a strong message: Thought Lamborghini just made powerful, flashy cars just for show? Think again.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.