Porsche 911 GTS RS has set a new record for fastest road legal sports car on the infamous 20.6-kilometre Nurburgring Nordschleife, Germany in September 20 setting a time of 6 minutes and 47.3 seconds. The record lap time beats the 6 minutes 52.01 seconds set by Lamborghini Huracan Performante. It also makes it quicker than the time set by the Porsche 918 Spyder of 6 minutes 57 minutes, the 911 GT2 RS’s hybrid hypercar sibling.
Frank-Steffen Walliser, Vice President Motorsport and GT Cars said, “At the start of the development process, we set ourselves a lap time target for the GT2 RS of less than 7 minutes and 5 seconds. The credit for beating this target by 17.7 seconds goes to our development engineers, mechanics and drivers, who demonstrated an exceptionally strong team performance. This result makes it official: The GT2 RS is not only the most powerful, but also the fastest 911 ever built”.
Porsche say, this record was not a one-off. Lars Kern (30) from Germany and Nick Tandy (32) from the UK broke the previous record for road legal sports cars (6 minutes, 52.01 seconds) in their first attempt and subsequently finished five laps, each coming in under 6 minutes, 50 seconds. Andreas Preuninger, Director GT Model Line, says: “It’s not just the record time achieved by the GT2 RS that demonstrates the vehicle’s class, but also its consistent performance in every lap. We’re particularly proud of the fact that this was achieved with two different vehicles and two different drivers, as this underlines the GT2 RS’s ability to reproduce this record result over and over again”.
Porsche factory driver Tandy travelled straight from a six-hour race in Austin, Texas to the Nürburgring. He then swapped the Le Mans prototype Porsche 919 Hybrid for the 515-kW (700-hp) Porsche 911 GT2 RS with Michelin Pilot Cup 2 tyres. But it was Lars Kern, a Porsche test driver, who ultimately set the final record time. Alongside the Carrera Cup Australia, Kern regularly competes in the VLN Endurance Championship on the Nürburgring and knows the Nordschleife inside out.
The Porsche 911 GT2 RS is the fastest, most powerful road-legal 911 which made its world premiere at the Festival of Speed in Goodwoodin June 2017. At the heart of this high-performance sports car is a 700 hp (515 kW), flat-six biturbo engine, weighing in at 1,470 kg with a full fuel tank. The lightweight rear-wheel drive two-seater coupe is capable of accelerating from zero to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds and can achieve a top speed of 340 km/h. The new Porsche 911 GT2 RS beats its 3.6-litre predecessor by 80 hp (59 kW) and achieves a torque of 750 Nm (an increase of 50 Nm).
Check out these two exciting videos below that captured this record breaking performance:
