Boom! Down goes another Nürburgring record to the might of Mercedes-AMG. And this record is particularly noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First, it’s the absolute lap record for production cars. Nothing with a license plate has gone faster than this. Secondly, Mercedes-AMG did it with a front-engine car. Showing, yet again, that tons of horsepower can overcome a number of handling problems.

Front vs. Mid Engine

It’s a well-known fact of engineering and physics that mid-engine cars are faster than ones with a front or rear engine. I could go into more details about why, but to save time, let’s remember that even Chevy finally debuted its mid-engine Corvette after the rumor mills swirled for years. The point being that Mercedes-AMG went out and set the production car record at the Nürburgring with what amounts to a factory hot-rod version of their GT called, almost unimaginatively, the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series.
They had to do it with something, and since Mercedes-Benz doesn’t even make a mid-engine road car, a version of their Mercedes-AMG GT was a good place to start.

Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series. Photo: MBUSA.

Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series Specs

Engine: 4.0-liter V8 bi-turboDisplacement: 3,982 ccHorsepower: 720 (6,700-6,900 rpm) Torque: 590 lb-ft. (2,000-6,000 rpm)Drive System: RWDTransmission: AMG SPEEDSHIFT DCT 7-speedZero to 60: 3.1 secondsTop Speed: 202

Hard Pill To Swallow"

The car M...