VW T5 breaks Nürburgring 'full lap in a van' record

Do you remember watching the episode of Top Gear where Sabine Schmitz set the world famous commercial vehicle lap at Nürburgring of 10 minutes and 8 seconds in a Ford Transit van? That was amazing. But if you thought that it couldn’t be beat and that the record time was as fast as a standard van could go, well, you are in for a treat.

VW Group tuning expert Revo has set a new record for a commercial vehicle lap during a recent test session of the Nürburgring – smashing the previous world famous full lap with a time of just 9mins:57.36 seconds. The seasoned Nordschleife veteran Dale Lomas was at the helm of the record breaking VW T5 van.

Revo, the most widely accessible global provider of world-class, switchable engine calibration software and performance hardware for Volkswagen Group vehicles plus STaSIS, who specializes in performance-enhancing brake, suspension, driveline and engine products for Audi vehicles, make up the STaSIS Revo Group.  Together they deliver innovative race- and road-going hardware and software products to automotive performance admirers round the world.

Choosing a lightly modified VW T5 van with a 2.0 Twin Turbo Diesel, the Revo team gave it even more of a fighting chance - with the addition of a bespoke ECU remap, Milltek ‘turbo-back’ exhaust system and a Forge intercooler/oil cooler combination. This was enough to take the engine to an impressive – and useful - 220bhp and with a very healthy rise in torque.

In addition, the chassis was improved with BILSTEIN’s well-proven B14 coil over kit, a quartet of lightweight Team Dynamics wheels and a set of sticky road legal, Direzza boots from Revo’s tyre partner, Dunlop.

STaSIS Revo Group President James Leng said, “this is one of our more ‘tongue-in-cheek’ engineering exercises, but we are trying to prove a serious point – and that is that our ECU conversions, and the select performance hardware components that we fit in conjunction with our technical partners, are more than up to the job of whatever you ask them to do. Whether your T5 leads a hard life towing, as your delivery vehicle, or as your holiday home... or whether you would like to go and scalp a couple of M5s for a giggle, we have the exact ECU remap and hardware package that you need, and without compromise on economy!”

The STaSIS Revo Group has set up a micro site with more details and you can even view a video of the lap. Just don’t go driving your commercial van like the modified T5, as tempting as it may be, especially after watching the amazing YouTube video of the record breaking lap.