Mercedes has sent an all-electric AMG GT XX with a racing team to the Nardo Circuit in Italy. The team had spent 7 days, 13 hours, 23 minutes and 7.1 seconds lapping the circuit non-stop, day and night. It ended up setting multiple records, coming on top of the Chinese XPeng P7 as the track’s best endurance racer.
The AMG GT XX had covered 5,479 kilometers (3,404 miles) in 24 hours, stopping only to top up the battery and let the drivers drive in shifts. It had managed to travel roughly 1,500 km (932 miles) more in a day than the Xpeng P7, which clocked in 3,961 km (2,461 miles) just several days ago.
Perhaps more impressively, the GT XX had covered more ground than the length of the Earth’s equator (40,075 kilometers, or 24,901 miles). The Nardo Circuit is 12.5 kilometers (7.8 miles) long, so the car had to run 3,177 laps over eight days without breaking down for this to be possible.
Mercedes never revealed how many charge-ups it required and how much time was spent plugged into a charger. What we do know is that the GT XX supports ultra-fast 850-kW charging and can replenish enough energy for 400 km (248 miles) of range in just five minutes.
From the technical standpoint, the car is still a prototype. It was introduced in June this year with a three-motor electric powertrain rated at 1,360 PS (1,344 hp / 1,000 kW). Mercedes found a way to increase the energy storage density in its nickel-cobalt-manganese battery pack to an impressive 300W/kg. Despite carrying more than 3,000 individual battery cells, the EV remains light enough for endurance racing.
