Porsche breaks Nurburgring record 02 | 10 | 2017
PORSCHE HAS SET a new fastest time for a lap of the Nurburgring by a road legal, rear-wheel drive car. The 911 GT2 RS stopped the watch at 6mins 47.30secs. The times also the second-fastest road car time ever, just 1.4sec slower than the all-electric Nio EP9 hypercar. (Related: New £5m Porsche Centre for Scotland)
For the record run, Porsche ran two cars, one driven by test driver Lars Kern, the other by Le Mans 24-Hours winner Nick Tandy. Kern set the fastest time.
The time makes the GT2 RS — shod with road legal Michelin Pilot Cup 2 tyres — not only the fastest Porsche 911 of all time around the famous circuit but the fastest Porsche, beating the lap time of the 918 Spyder by more than 10 seconds.
Porsche had originally set itself the target of a 7:05.00 time. But the German sports car maker claims the target was beaten time and again during the record runs, with five of its laps ducking under the 6:50.00 threshold. Weather conditions were described as ‘ideal’. (Related: 2018 Porsche Cayenne — First details)
As is customary for record drives, the time was measured along the 20.6-kilometre stretch. The vehicle’s average speed was 184.11km/h.
The fastest and most powerful road-approved 911 is powered by a 700bhp six-cylinder biturbo flat engine. Weighing in at 1470 kg with a full fuel tank, the lightweight two-seater accelerates from 0-62mph in 2.8 seconds. The rear-wheel drive Coupé has a top speed of 340km/h.
“We’re particularly proud of the fact this was achieved with two different vehicles and two different drivers,” Andreas Preuninger, the GT model line director, said, “as this underlines the GT2 RS’s ability to reproduce this record result over and over again.”
Frank-Steffen Walliser, Porsche’s motorsport and GT car vice president, said: “The credit for beating our target goes to our development engineers, mechanics and drivers, who demonstrated an exceptionally strong team performance.”
Related: Porsche eyeing return to F1
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Jim McGill