Apparently the sub 8 min Skyline GTR R33 had full slicks, non standard boost, chipped computer, and limiters removed.
The best you could expect from a GTR around the ring would be 8min 28.1 sec.
AUTOCAR NURBURGRING ARTICLE
The Caterham's rear tyres howl in protest as I stroke its nose deftly through the Nurburgring's final corner. The crowd rises to its feet and a sea of Union Jacks are waved as I cross the line in record time. Then, through the mayhem, someone hands me a huge white telephone, ringing out above the cacophony...
Monday, 4.50am: the bedside alarm rudely terminates my dream and I remember that there's a new Porsche 911 parked outside. My aim today is to cross the Channel and drive to the Nordschleife in Germany to meet the men from Caterham, as well as a legend called Stefan and his extraordinary "Yellow Bird" Ruf Porsche.
Our goal could scarcely be more simple. We want to break the production car lap record for the famous old 12.95-mile Nurburgring. Currently it stands at 7min 59sec, set by a Nissan Skyline GTR in 1995. But given that the Skyline set the time during its development stage and was free of the speed limiter that prevents UK versions from doing more than 156mph, we can no longer count it as the true production car record holder. Especially as it's far from clear how much turbo boost the GTR was running during the lap, or how much tweaking the rear-wheel steer system had undergone.
So for these reasons and more, the standard production car lap record will no longer belong to the Skyline after this event; it will instead hold the record for a modified road car. Unless, of course, the unchipped, unfettled GTR that colleague Allan Muir is due to arrive in tomorrow can match, or perhaps better, that 7min 59sec time...
Caterham Superlight R: 8min 6.2sec
Ruf CTR II: 8min 15.0sec
Nissan Skyline GTR: 8min 28.1 sec
Porsche 911 Carrera: 8min 38.4sec
Thanks to Bridgestone for all its tyres
Article written by Stephen Sutcliffe.
From Autocar 17th December 1997.
http://www.caterham.force9.co.uk/ring.htm