New Delhi: Usually, if a carmaker were to go around a track, especially something as revered as Nurburgring, it is to create records and go around the
fastest in some way or the other. It is rare that a carmaker wants to find out if they have made something slow around a track, and that’s where the French carmaker Ligier might be different.
A while back, the Ligier JS50 quadricycle went around the Nurburgring and did an official lap. While technically it falls in the same category as the Citroen Ami, the JS50 makes about eight bhp in their powerful variant and has a maximum speed of 45 kph.
Thanks to these virtues, the JS50 did the official Nurburgring lap in 28 minutes and 25.8 seconds. That is officially the slowest a car has ever gon around the ring, beating Trabant P50’s record, which went in 16 minutes and 1 second back in 1960. The fastest lap in comparison is from Mercedes AMG One, which went around in six minutes and 29.1 seconds.
The biggest challenge for the car was to do the 20.76 kms in a single tank, which was achieved with an average of 40 km/l. The car came with what the brand calls “ultimate racing experience” package, which includes the horsepower boosting decals and go-fast body kit as well.
Of course, as most auto journalists would say, doing lap times might be overrated, as no one really drives like that in the real world, and it really tells less. Most importantly, a car setup for tracks might not be all that good for driving in the city and elsewhere.
