AX diesel Nurburgring record lap

Citroën AX 14D « Entreprise » -- 1993 -- 685.100 km -- 1,360 litre diesel engine 52 hp -- 720 kg
The car is stock except: xenon lights, front tyres (A048), increased fuel pressure, strutbar (because of the mileage of the body) and an aluminum intake from 1.5D engine (because of the strutbar).

This record lap was done on Saturday August 17th 2013 at 8:37am.
It was the 118th Nordschleife lap for this car and my 10th attempt trip (1115 km away from Bordeaux in France).
Lap timing equipment = mobile phone with Harry's Lap Timer and a XGPS150 Bluetooth receiver.

It took me a lot of time and patience to achieve a "Bridge To Gantry" lap time under 10 minutes during the tourist drive sessions at the Nordschleife.
This challenge was definitely for fun but also to prove it could be done with work, tenacity and a bit of madness too...
I have been chasing the 'perfect lap' for 7 years with no traffic, no road works, fresh air, dry track, no driving mistakes and a reliable drivetrain.
This TUD3 diesel engine is known for its poor reliability and I went through 9 engines and 5 gearboxes!
Here I want to thank all the people who spent time to help me work on this little car.

With such a non-powerful car, if you kill the momentum you're done, and in many corners I tend to overdrive the car trying to maximize momentum.
For this reason, my video is not a driving lesson at all!

During all these years I tried to be respectful of the Nürburgring tourist drive rules, the other users (faster and slower cars) and the people working on the track.
Recording movies and lap times is not allowed, in theory...but I made this video to show you don't necessarily need a sport car and a lot of money to enjoy driving.

Racing is a state of mind.