W12 Record Nardò

At the request of then Volkswagen Group CEO Ferdinand Piech, Fabrizio Giugiaro was tasked to design a Volkswagen sports car, with instructions that it had to accommodate a 12-cylinder engine in a W configuration, be mid-engined, and also be able to be configured with Volkswagen's Syncro all-wheel drive system. In 2001, at the Tokyo Motor Show, Volkswagen Group released their most powerful W12 sports car concept yet, the W12 Nardò (referring to the Nardò Ring vehicle test track near the Italian city of Nardò). The engine was rated at 441 kW (600 PS; 591 bhp) and 621 N⋅m of torque; it could accelerate from a standstill to 100 km/h in about 3.5 seconds, and had a top speed of 357 km/h, weighing 1,200 kg. On 23 February 2002, this W12 took the world record for all speed classes over 24 hours over the Nardò Ring at Lecce, covering a distance of 7,740.576 kilometres, at an average speed of 322.891 km/h.