Lamborghini Scandal: Did They Fake Lap Record? What ‘New Tire’ Did They Use?
The Lamborghini’s Huracan has just set a very impressive lap time, which is also a new Nurburgring record.
The Italian automaker has released a video teaser of what the industry can expect of their newest series. According to The Drive, a video was uploaded on YouTube that shows the almost impossible performance of the new Lamborghini Huracan. The Huracan covered the 12.9-mile Nurburging Nordschleife in a test drive to show people that it will soon dominate the German race track.
The video teaser even told the viewers to “prepare for the highest experience.”
Then, another two-and-a-half minute video was released. The initial review was overall positive. Besides the noise of the car, nothing was really to be faulted in the car. It is also normal for supercars to be loud.
According to Jalopnik, the car’s preview of breaking the Nurburgring record was impressive.
“FLASH! BANG! ZOOM! THE NEW LAMBORGHINI HURACÁN PERFORMANTE JUST SMASHED THROUGH THE PRODUCTION CAR LAP RECORD AT THE NÜRBURGRING. Holy f**k! Who saw that one coming? YOU DID.”
The Lamborghini Huracan’s lap record was 6:52:01.
Everything was good for the new title holder, until the internet started to question its validity.
Many are suspecting that Lamborghini did not really record the shot on the time and date that they said it was taken.
The former car record set by the Porsche 918 Spyder was set at 6:57 back in 2013. The overlap on the two cars was also about the huge difference in their power. The Huracan had 625 to 640 hp, while the Porsche 918 Spyder was at 887 hp.
Jalopnik contributor and race car driver Dale Lomas wrote on his blog and collaborated with YouTuber Misha Charoudin. Lomas argues that they need to watch out for the overlay in the speedometer.
Lomas said that the video was displaying both the Aventador’s and the Huracan’s GPS Data, “not by wheelspeed.”
“Why do I think they’re GPS based? Simple both videos display ‘glitches’ in the speed readout shown on the post-processed ‘dashboard.’ These glitches range from barely noticable to somewhat striking. GPS speed measuring from modern equipment is mighty impressive, but it still falls victim to trees, radio interference and ground reflections”
The other argument was on the accuracy of the video. Though it is really hard to prove otherwise, they did a number theory on the Aventador SV and the Huracan, while taking into consideration the Gantry Time, speed, and bridge time, as well as the split time. At the end of their computation, the Aventador SV had an average computed speed of 285 mph, while the Huracan ended at 271.5 mph, 4.5 percent slower than the Aventador.
“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%. In other words, as a very simple example, you can make a 24fps version offline, and then play it at 25fps.”
The validity of the video has become even more questionable since the main camera was placed on the nose of the car instead of behind the driver. Therefore, it became harder to tell the tachometer and the speedometer apart.
Lomas actually did an Aventador recording to show its actual speed and how it differentiates from the video of the Lamborghini Huracan.
Additionally, Nurburgring expert Robb Holland was consulted on the matter. Though he said it is not clear if Lamborghini cheated or not, he admits that there are some pitfalls in the video.
“I am not accusing Lambo of cheating, but there are things that won’t pass the sniff test.”
Lamborghini did not directly answer the video and speed questions, but the only thing they highlighted in their press release was the fact that they were allegedly using “unique tires” when they recorded the video.
“The Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tires, in 245/30ZR20 at the front and 305/30ZR20 at the back were designed specifically by Pirelli’s engineers for the record attempt.”
[Featured Image by Harold Cunningham/Getty Images]
