Lynk & Co takes flight at Nurburgring, picks up two new records



No, this isn’t the flying car our Entrepreneur Development minister is so enthusiastic about, but when you go around the Nordschleife quickly, the car tends to get ‘airborne’ over the seemingly endless crests and dips of the infamous Green Hell.

The Lynk & Co 03 Cyan Concept looks the part.

Lynk & Co isn’t the first Chinese-owned brand to break records at the Nurburgring, but it’s the emphatic manner which they achieved it with their motorsport and performance partner Cyan Racing – previously known as Polestar but the brand been acquired by Volvo for their new electric division – that grabbed headlines.

Watch how Thed Björk tamed the Green Hell.

The weapon of choice was a front-wheel drive 03 Cyan Concept sedan based on the WTC Cup race car, powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged 4-cylinder engine churning out an extraordinary 528 hp and 504 Nm output (with an 8,000rpm limiter), mated to a 6-speed sequential transmission and supported by a limited slip differential for the benefit of traction.

The road-going 03 Cyan Concept sedan is capable of accelerating from zero to 100 km/h in 4.4 seconds, 0-200 km/h in 10 seconds and tops out at 310 km/h. It rides on Ohlins adjustable dampers and 20-inch Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber on all four corners.

With 2017 WTC champion Thed Björk (below) behind the wheel, the 03 Cyan Concept shattered the existing FWD and four-door saloon records with a time of 7:20.143 around the full 20.8 km North Loop, beating the FWD mark held by the Renault Megane R.S. Trophy-R by 20 seconds, and it also eclipsed the Jaguar Project 8 four-door saloon record by 3 seconds on a slightly shorter version (20.6 km) of the same track with a time of 7:15.123. Ouch!

According to Cyan Racing, the objective was to demonstrate the potential of the Volvo-Geely developed CMA platform which not only underpins the Lynk & Co 03 Cyan Concept sedan, but also the 40-series Volvo models (including the XC40 and upcoming ones) and the Geely Xing Yue crossover.