wow the driver had never been on the ring before and was basically going for it with little previous knowledge of the track according to the car and driver article



"Afterward, when we asked how much time Mäkinen had on the track before the record run, one of the Subaru guys laughed. “We asked him to learn the circuit on PlayStation, but he never did it.” The Finn’s response: “I wanted to, but it was the Japanese version.” A certain Herr Schmidt, a German member of the STI development team who is very familiar with the ‘Ring, took Mäkinen out the first time he was at the track and showed him around. He told me that a normal person needs about 50 laps to improve their time. Mäkinen did so in maybe five. “He ran unbelievably quickly.”

Mäkinen says that, as a rally driver, he’s developed good “road memory” and didn’t need to run the track too many times. He said he viewed it like any rally stage, except without any pace notes, and shrugged it off by saying the hardest part for him was adjusting to the car’s right-hand-drive setup. "


it could have been even faster then...

I wonder how much different this car is from the actual production version...

The article in the OP doesn't at all allude to the car being modified.

Correct me if i'm wrong but this car has a bigger turbo and bolt ons. Impressive nonetheless also JDM STI is light years ahead of the USDM version. Mitsu need to step up and put their fq400 on the nurburgring.

Very impressive driving.

"The engine is the Japanese-market STI Spec C’s, a 2.0-liter turbocharged boxer-four that’s been given the larger turbo from the R205, another Japanese special-edition STI model. It’s now putting out a claimed 320 hp"

Still it seem far from the actual production model.

-Car&Driver