Pontiac G8 GXP will do Nurburgring in 8:30?

The Nurburgring has become General Motors’ benchmark for its performance cars. Although this seems like a no-brainer considering the public road/race circuit is a standard for the world, GM has been relatively absent from this track until about this last decade. Now GM uses it to test everything from the Chevrolet Corvette to the Cadillac SRX.

One car that isn’t a surprise appearance on the German road is Pontiac’s G8 GXP, but what did make news was its unoffical time, eight minutes and thirty seconds. That’s not too bad considering the benchmark performance sedan, the BMW M5, does the same lap in 8:13, and the M5 costs more than double the GXP’s $40,000 base price.

This run was touted as driven by a development engineer and not a professional driver. But that doesn’t always mean this is just some everyday driver. General Motors employed former racer John Heinricy as its director of Performance Vehicles Operations. GM used Heinricy when the Cadillac CTS-V beat out the BMW M5 during a challenge at the Monticello Motor Club.

The G8 GXP is powered by a 6.2L LS3 small-block V-8, currently rated at 415 hp and over 400 lb.-ft. of torque. Current figures peg the G8 GXP’s 0-to-60 mph performance at 4.7 seconds, and a quarter-mile time of 13.0 seconds at 108 mph. It features a larger-bore cylinder block, high-flow cylinder heads, larger-diameter pistons, unique camshaft, revised valvetrain with offset intake rocker arms, high intake manifold, and high-flow fuel injectors.