Image: Daimler Global Media.
With every launch of a new sports or supercar arrival, it's always guaranteed that some form of time is attached to the press release for journalists to drool all over their bold, 'click-on-me' headlines.
It's always the easiest way to make a headline for a new car actually; otherwise, you'll be spending valuable hours sitting on a fuzzy chair trying to think of something effective that a gazillion other publications don't have already.
But the times in question are nothing to be messed around with. The Nurburgring Nordschleife is one of the most daunting, dangerous tracks to grace the earth and if you've ever watched any of the videos which manufacturers attach to their press releases, the skill and speed involved is simply immeasurable.
Image: Daimler Global Media
However, have you ever considered why manufacturers choose the Nurburgring to brag about their products' capabilities at all? Well, since the Nordschleife stretches for 13 miles and has every kind of corner and elevation imaginable, it's pretty easy to clock a time that's seconds apart from the next car - or even driver.
Manufacturers of recent years, mainly consisting of Mercedes, Porsche and Lamborghini, have been consistently pushing to get their new models 4 seconds ahead of the competitor, then 3 seconds and then even 2 seconds.
To put it simply, because the Nordschleife requires maximum concentration for an extremely prolonged amount of time, a 2 second loss will be somewhat equal to a 0.2 second loss on a more 'normal' circuit such as Spa Francorchamps or Silverstone.
Image: Porsche Newsroom
It does make you wonder therefore that since the gaps between each cars' capabilities are - in reality - very minuscule, whether focusing on the times is worth it at all?
They're records in which will be used as bragging rights among supercar fans and rarely matter in the real world. Not like the notion of speed limits or sleeping policemen, but rather the capabilities of the owners of these cars.
They will never be able to replicate the insane Nurburgring record in which the manufacturers value so dearly, nor will they become Jackie Stewart every time they attend a track day on occasion.
Image: Porsche Newsroom
To sum up therefore, lap record times around the Nurburgring Nordschleife are not only as wide in terms of a car's capabilities as they may seem, but also completely irrelevant to anyone who is taking delivery of the car.
It's a method that manufacturers are now using to effectively assert dominance over their competitors. At the moment, Mercedes own the monopoly with not only the record for production cars with the AMG GT Black Series, but also the record for executive saloons with the AMG GT 4-Door (which I suspect BMW may challenge with their new M5 CS).