The Lynk & Co 03 Cyan Concept has become the fastest saloon around the Nürburgring

The Lynk & Co 03 Cyan Concept, accompanied by the World Touring Car team, has broken front-wheel-drive records and managed to set a lap time with a saloon around the legendary German Nürburgring circuit. A lap time of 7’20.14″ marked a three-second improvement over the limited-edition Jaguar XE SV Project 8. This vehicle broke its own record last month.

However, the Jaguar model was in full production, while the Lynk & Co model that drove the circuit remains a concept “based on the series production model”, for now.

The previous record for the fastest front-wheel-drive vehicle was held by the Renault Mégane RS Trophy R, which set a time of 7’40.1″ before its launch earlier this year. The Lynk & Co 03 Cyan Concept is a road-legal reworking of the car that competes in the World Touring Car, WTCR, by Geely, and is being tested as part of a development programme for what the company calls “an extended performance offering”.

The model’s record was achieved by a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine producing a whopping 521 CV and 504 Nm of maximum torque, but it is unclear whether this powertrain will reach any kind of production beyond racing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3e69sptwvE

Lynk & Co 03 Cyan Concept, a beast with a record at the Nürburgring?

According to the manufacturer itself, the Lynk & Co 03 Cyan Concept can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.4 seconds and reach a top speed of 310 km/h. The average speed achieved during its lap of the circuit was 170 km/h. Like the car it is based on, this concept features a prominent front splitter, wide wheel arches, carbon-fibre side skirts and a large rear wing.

Behind the wheel for the record was WTCR driver Thed Björk, who said “the record we have achieved here is something I rank at the same level as my racing titles and the highlight of my part in the transition from race development to road cars”.

The Chinese sports car, derived from the competition model that takes part in the WTCR, features a mechanical limited-slip differential with electronic control, as well as adaptive Öhlins dampers and front brake discs with a large diameter of 378 millimetres.

Lynk & Co presented the 03 as a four-door saloon aimed at the Chinese market. It is built on the CMA platform of Volvo and offers a selection of conventional petrol and electrified powertrains. Henrik Fries, R&D director for automotive at Cyan Racing, for his part said that “while our main goal for the many laps of the Nürburgring Nordschleife is development, the records we broke are a true testament to the potential and capabilities of the Lynk & Co platform, as well as our engineering philosophy of more than two decades of performance in motorsport and racing cars”.