Aside from revealing the production SU7 Ultra, Xiaomi has also announced that its track-only Ultra Prototype has officially claimed the Nürburgring four-door sedan lap record of 6 minutes 46.874 seconds. The lap, set by 2023 Nürburgring 24 Hours winner David Pittard, was nearly 11 seconds quicker than that of the previous record holder, the Subaru WRX STI Type RA NBR Special.
The process of getting that clean lap on a dry track wasn’t easy, as CEO Lei Jun explained. Back in January, Xiaomi booked the Nordschleife on October 9 and 10 to lap the Ultra Prototype, but heavy rain on the first day and multiple showers on the second scuppered that attempt. Heavy rain also hindered a one-hour session held a week later on October 17, which track officials arranged with the Industrie-Pool (I-Pool) alliance of carmakers.
Xiaomi then attempted to slot itself into a gap in another carmaker’s testing on October 21, but this didn’t materialise. The company finally managed to set a lap time during a one-hour slot from 11am to 12pm on Monday, October 28, with officials certifying the record later that day.
As for the car itself, the Ultra Prototype utilises a triple-motor powertrain that would eventually enable the production Ultra to claim the title of the world’s fastest four-door sedan. This consists of two of Xiaomi’s flagship V8s motors at the rear – each making 578 PS (425 kW) and 635 Nm of torque all on its own – and the 392 PS (288 kW) V6s motor from the regular SU7 Max out front.
Total system output is 1,548 PS (1,139 kW), enabling the car to sprint from zero to 100 km/h in just 1.97 seconds (a tenth of a second quicker than the road-going model). Also shared with the production Ultra is a 93.7 kWh CATL Qilin 2.0 nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery, which is able to discharge a whopping 1,808 PS (1,330 kW), and even with just 20% charge remaining it can still produce 1,088 PS (800 kW).
Beyond the powertrain, however, the Prototype is a different kettle of fish compared to the production Ultra, wearing a full carbon fibre body, a completely stripped-out interior (both enabling the car’s weight to dip under the two-tonne mark), a roll cage, fat Pirelli P Zero slicks and a GT3-style aerodynamic package that includes a towering rear wing. Like the Subaru, the car was developed by Prodrive and is not road-legal.
As such, Porsche still holds the production sedan lap record with the Taycan Turbo GT, which secured a time of 7 minutes 7.55 seconds. That probably won’t hold for long, however, as Xiaomi will surely attempt to wrest the title away with the production Ultra – and given the dogged determination it has already shown with the Prototype, it won’t rest until it has done so.
GALLERY: Xiaomi SU7 Ultra 
The post Xiaomi SU7 Ultra Prototype sets Nürburgring 4-door lap record of 6:46; Porsche still holds production title appeared first on Paul Tan's Automotive News.
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