Watch: This Tractor Sets a New Lap Record at the Nurburgring

Published on September 1, 2020 in Buzz by Guillaume Rivard

Any self-respecting high-performance vehicle must conquer the “Green Hell” that’s the legendary Nürburgring race track in Germany. Setting a lap record there guarantees instant fame.

Even for a tractor?

Yep, forget about supercars and sports sedans. Tractors and other similar farm machinery can also take a crack at the challenging loop to see which one is the fastest there. And now the bragging rights go to the Claas Xerion 5000 VC.

You can watch a video below (turn on the English subtitles):

This machine weighs more than 37,000 pounds and owes its performance to a 12.8-litre six-cylinder Mercedes engine that generates some 500 horsepower and—wait for it—1,918 pound-feet of torque.

Instead of lapping the track in under eight minutes like the world’s fastest automobiles, this tractor ended up with a time of 24 minutes and 50.57 seconds. That represents an average of 50.3 km/h with a top speed of 53 km/h.

It’s also much slower than the J.C. Bamford Excavators Fastrac 8000, a highly customized version of which reached 165.8 km/h at Elvington Airfield, near York in the U.K. last summer.

By the way, if you’re interested in the Claas Xerion 5000 VC, you can order a copy… as a LEGO set.