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No, the Chevy Corvette Z06 did not lap the 'Ring in under 7 minutes

If you've been following gearhead news, you may have noticed rumors suggesting that the Corvette Z06 lapped the Nurburgring in a scarcely believable 6 minutes 59 seconds, just two seconds off the mighty Porsche 918 hypercar. Don't believe it. Those rumors are bunk, and for the record, so is the one about Ford's GT350R Mustang managing a time 5 seconds faster than the Camaro Z/28.

Both came from a site called HorsepowerKings, which has been churning out stories since last July with no bylines or other identification. Some have been disputed enough that MustangG6G.com has said that any thread linking to this site will be deleted immediately due to "completely fabricated stories."

We asked Chevrolet about the rumors of its 'Ring time and this is the response we received: "Simply put, those guys are making it up." Chevy did go on to say how it completed 1,000 miles at the famed track, but that it did not capture a lap on video to back up the actual lap time, therefore it will not be releasing any information.

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Ford had no comment on its rumored 7 minute 32.19 second lap, which would thrash the Z/28's 7 minute 37 second run, but it did say to Fox News a short while ago that it too would not be releasing any times from its testing at the Nurburgring. (That didn't keep many other sites from posting the HK report as a rumor after it had been picked up overseas first. We at Yahoo Autos avoided that one because of its shaky source.)

Back to HorsepowerKings: These are the same folk(s?) that reported the GT350 would have a starting price of $52,995, something most outlets are quoting as fact despite no verification from Ford. (A few days back the site additionally announced the GT350R will sticker for $69,995). The site also recently "broke news" on how Ford was killing all off its V-8 engines by 2018. Shortly after this aritcle was published, Ford flatly denied the story.

Perhaps HorsepowerKings is right though. Maybe they do have a secret source that chooses to leak information to a start-up site with no identity. It could be true, but until we see at the very least someone willing to stand behind their reporting with their own name, we aren't buying it. The Z06 likely lapped the 'Ring in an astonishingly fast time, but 6 minute 59 seconds? In the words of Kevin McCallister, "I don't think so."