Used diesel van breaks Nurburgring record

A new Nurburgring lap record has been set in the van category by a Volkswagen Transporter. Modified by German tuning company Revo, the used VW van recorded an impressive time of 9:57 at the legendary 'Ring.

The sub 10-minute time is still a long way off iconic super cars of the era, such as the Nissan GT-R (7:24) and Lexus LFA (7:14) at the legendary 21km road circuit, but the 9:57 lap is still remarkably quick.

Especially for a diesel-powered van with more than 100,000km on the clock...

It's also faster than the previous van record set by female driving ace Sabine Schmitz in a Ford Transit van (10:08), as part of a Top Gear episode in 2005. However that run was also aided by a Dodge Viper cutting the air in front and providing a slip-stream tool, and it wasn't a full lap.

The company behind the record, Revo, is a Volkswagen Group tuning specialist, not to be confused with Pakistan's first home-grown and now defunct city car. Simply put, the company set out to break the 'Ring record in a van after revisiting the Top Gear episode.

Dale Lomas, creator of the BridgeToGantry.com website, was the man in the hot seat, who drove the wheels off the modified courier van. The lap was also roughly 1.6km farther than the Ford Transit van (a full lap, not just bridge to gantry) and was also hampered by regular traffic.

Lomas said the request from Revo was an odd one, but one he's glad he agreed to.

"I have been asked to drive many vehicles around the 'Ring, but I have to say Revo's request to pedal their van was one of the more left-field and exciting."

He said the car was an "absolute hoot" and was "surprisingly nimble and compliant".

"It’s all a bit of fun really, but I’m delighted that we managed a full lap of the Nordschleife in under 10 minutes. I'd love to see what we could do on a clear track!" enthused Lomas.

The Volkswagen Transporter T5 used to break the record was powered by a 2.0-litre twin turbo-diesel engine. It was also a pre-loved vehicle, with roughly 128,700 kilometres already on the clock.

Revo set about improving the delivery van's performance with a new ECU map for more aggressive fuelling and also by beefing up its forced induction systems.

A Forge-supplied intercooler/oil cooler, Milltek 'turbo-back' exhaust system and other engine mods bring power output to 164kW (220hp). Perhaps more importantly for the van, the chassis came in for a workover, with Bilstein coilover suspension and grippy Dunlop Direzza tyres.

It might be the fastest around the 'Ring, but it's not the first go-fast van we've seen. Anyone remember the officially sanctioned VW Caddy Racer from 2011? How about the Ford Transit SportVan from 2009?

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site.