While Volkswagen has been taking fire recently for their diesel emissions test subversion, there is some good news for the auto manufacturing giant. This week, they announced that they’d broken the existing lap record for production front-wheel-drive cars on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Driver Benny Leuchter lapped the course in the Golf GTI Clubsport with a time of 7 minutes, 49.21 seconds. This eclipses the previous FWD fast lap of 7:50.63 recorded in May 2014 by a Honda Civic Type R development car.

The Clubsport S is a limited-production version of the regular Clubsport, stripped down straight from the factory without a rear seat, central armrest, insulation, or floor mats, coming in at a claimed empty weight of just 2,833 pounds. Power output for the turbocharged 2.0 liter engine is 228kW (306 horsepower in Freedom Units) and VW claims 0-62 miles per hour in 5.8 seconds and a top speed of 162.

Volkswagen even incorporated a special setting in the Clubsport S’ Dynamic Chassis Control programming specifically for the Nürburgring – the stiff settings that work best on normal, relatively smooth and flat racetracks are swapped in that mode for high lateral damping, but softer vertical damping to better suit the ‘Ring.

Michelin Sport Cup 2 “almost slicks” in 235/35ZR19 size do their part to reduce lap times, and the S also has a unique aluminum front suspension subframe, aluminum brake covers, and a strut brace to shed grams and increase stiffness.

Volkswagen says the Clubsport S will be limited to just 400 cars, with 100 destined for the German market. Since we’ll probably never sit behind the wheel of one, here’s the complete lap of the ‘Ring for your vicarious pleasure:

Read the full details here