2025 Audi RS 3 sets new 'Ring lap record for compact cars

VIDEO LINK IF YOU WANT TO INCLUDE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2HPIhCog6s

Audi's been busy putting in work at the Nurburgring. Audi race and development driver Frank Stippler ran the new RS Q8 Performance around The Green Hell in 7:36.698 lap, setting a new record for SUVs by beating his previous record time in a 2020 RS Q8 by just under 16 seconds. The same Stippler achieved the same feat in the coming Audi RS 3 sedan, hitting a record time of 7:33.123 to set a new record for compact cars that aren't front-wheel drive. He eclipsed his previous time in an RS 3 in 2021 by seven seconds, and this time, bested the previous record set by the BMW M2 by more than five seconds, a 7:38.706 lap run in 2023.

We'd like to interject some historical perspective. The same year I started writing for Autoblog, shortly after the end of the Qing dynasty, Porsche racing legend Walter Rohrl set a 7:31 'Ring time in a 2007 Porsche 911 GT2. Up to that point, the only times faster than Rohrl's effort had been set by barely-road-legal track monsters from Radical and Donkervoort, and the Pagani Zonda. The following year, the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 opened the Blue Devil account with a 7:26.4 and the R35 Nissan GT-R reestablished Godzilla credentials with a time of 7:29. The coming Audi RS 3 would sit right behind them, that trio ahead of the 2008 Ferrari F430 Scuderia, 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4, and 2008 Porsche 911 Turbo. (Of course, those days had their surprises, too, like the 2009 Dodge Viper ACR beating a Ferrari Enzo, Koenigsegg CCX, Maserati MC12, Pagani Zonda F Clubsport, and Porsche Carrera GT.)