Video: Alfa 4C sets Nurburgring record

Alfa Romeo has released a video of its record-breaking run in the upcoming 4C coupe around Germany’s famed Nurburgring on September 12.

Due on sale here in the first quarter of next year priced from about $75,000, the Italian brand’s all-new mid-engined sports car recorded a best official lap time of 8:04 just days after its international media launch.

That puts it on par with the original time set by Audi’s V8-powered R8 in 2007 and is narrowly better than the best achieved by BMW’s outgoing M3 (8:05), leading Alfa to claim the 4C’s performance is in line with “sports cars with much higher prices and more powerful engines”.

It also means the 4C -- which weighs just 895kg and is powered by a mid-mounted 177kW/350Nm 1.75-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine with a specific output of 137hp per litre -- is the new lap record-holder at the 20.8km Nordschleife for a vehicle producing less than 250hp (186kW).

The 4C’s Nurburgring lap time also betters the front-wheel drive record held by Renault’s Megane RS 265 (8:08) and the unofficial commercial-vehicle lap record (8:19) set by Holden’s VF Commodore SS Ute, it falls well short of the outright production car record of 6:57, set by Porsche’s new 918 Syper hybrid hypercar the same month.

While the standard 4C, which has a power-to-weight ratio of 250hp/tonne and comes standard with a six-speed dual-clutch transmission, is claimed to hit 100km/h in 4.5 seconds and offer 1.2g of braking deceleration, the record-setting example was shod with special Pirelli Zero Trofeo tyres.

Driver, journalist and Nordschleife expert Horst von Saurma was behind the wheel of the 4C for its Nurburgring run.