Schumacher Top Gear record as The Stig is beaten
The lap record set by legendary multiple F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher whilst masquerading as The Stig on cult BBC motoring show Top Gear has been beaten, it has been revealed.
Having seen its bid to appear on Top Gear with its GTR720 refused, British manufacturer Ultima took matters into its own hands and hired the Dunsfold aerodrome test track out by itself earlier this month - and promptly went and shattered the outstanding lap record, Yahoo reports.
The time set by Schumacher - clad in The Stig's iconic plain white racing suit and helmet as part of a hugely popular publicity stunt back in June - in a ?1 million FXX Ferrari stood at 1m10.7s, but was lowered by eight tenths of a second by the fully road-legal GTR720, which comes with a modest ?30,000 price tag by comparison. The new record was unofficially but independently verified.
The Ultima is powered by a 7.0-litre Chevrolet V8 engine pushing out a staggering 720bhp and capable of propelling the car from 0-60mph in a mere 2.6 seconds and slowing it down again from 100mph to nothing in 3.6 seconds - and apparently, that's not even the quickest that it can go.
"We still have significant room for lap time improvement in the future," explained Ted Marlow, managing director of Ultima Sports Ltd, "as there is always our 800hp variant to put through its paces yet - and of course the keys to our Ultima GTR720 are always available here for a certain Mr. Schumacher, should he like a shot at improving our new lap time record further still..."
