Lamborghini Accused of Faking Record-Setting Lap at Nürburgring

Earlier in the week, Lamborghini test-driver Marco Marpelli, apparently made history in the new lightweight Huracan Performante. According to the company, they surpassed the previous lap record for a production car on the Nurburgring, taking the mantel from the previous record holder, the Porsche 918 Spyder- or did it?

Shortly after the announcement, skeptics began claiming that something just didn’t seem quite right.

Chief among the skeptics, is writer and race car driver, Dale Lomas. On his personal blog, Bridge To Gantry, Lomas laid out a few points, explaining why he feels that the lap video isn’t legitimate. His main point focuses on the speedometer displays and where they are being fed from.

This theory that Lamborghini faked the laptime in the video HINGES on the fact that the overlay speedo displays of BOTH the Aventador SV and Huracan Performante videos are being fed by GPS data, NOT by wheelspeed.

So why does it matter if the display is being fed by GPS? As Lomas explains, if the readout comes from a sensor measuring the wheel speed, it may encounter errors pertaining to the tire, but they would be “within tolerance.” In other words, the glitches would be negligible, and not really effect the reading.

On the other hand, if you are measuring using GPS, it could experience interference. Think about the last time you used your GPS to drive around a large built-up area. Sometimes, it jumps around, sometimes it looses “sight” of you. This could be because buildings or trees are blocking it, or it could be picking up radio interference.

Lomas claims that you can actually see these glitches when you compare shots of the tachometer. Indeed, you can see that the needles in both shots are at about the same spot, but the speeds are much different. The one on the left reads 211 and the other is at 205. He goes on to say that it could be a mistake, but more likely it is a common error, citing that it happened during the Aventador’s lap as well.

What does that all mean? Dale Lomas gathered the numbers and clarified what he found, “If the GPS speeds are correct, then that can only leave one logical conclusion: Lamborghini sped up the frame-rate of the video. Roughly, using those numbers above, I’d guess by nearly 5%.” He’s not alone in thinking that something isn’t right.

Jalopnik‘s own racing driver said, “I am not accusing Lambo of cheating,” he said over a call, “but there are things that don’t pass the sniff test.” In the end, one of the easiest ways to put this all to rest is for Lambo to post their lap data, but so far, they haven’t. We will just have to wait and see if the time of 6:52 stands.