New car news

24 July 2008 - 18:00

X-record

Another day, another Nurburgring record. This one's a biggie, though, because the Nissan X-Trail has smashed, destroyed, obliterated the 'Ring lap record.

Sort of. The X-Trail, piloted by Nurburgring racer Frank Eickholt, lapped the 'Ring in 11 minutes 58 seconds. Which isn't really very fast at all, but still good enough for a new record... for a fuel cell vehicle.

This may have something to do with the X-Trail being the first FCV to lap the 'Ring. The 1.3-million euro prototype utilises a similar system to the Honda Clarity, generating electricity from hydrogen and oxygen and emitting only water. It's capable of 90mph and has a range of 300 miles.

Eickholt reckons that the X-Trail could have gone 40 seconds quicker round the 'Ring in better conditions - the track was soaking wet, apparently - and declared himself impressed with the car. We suspect he'd have taken a GT-R instead if it'd been on offer, though.

Nissan says that the fuel cell X-Trail could reach production by 2015. By which time the prototype may have completed another lap