Business Day - Motor News

Speed record proves this is the fastest road legal car

INDUSTRY NEWS/ The recently unveiled Porsche 911 GT2 RS has set a stunning lap time at the Nurburgrin­g

- Motor News Reporter

Porsche has set a new record for road legal sports cars on the famous 20.6km Nürburgrin­g Nordschlei­fe in the 911 GTS RS. The lap time of six minutes and 47.3 seconds was achieved in the presence of a notary and the company says it surpassed even its own expectatio­ns.

“We set ourselves a target for the GT2 RS of less than seven minutes and five seconds,” says Frank-Steffen Walliser, vicepresid­ent motorsport and GT cars at Porsche.

“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 built.”

This record was not a oneoff: Lars Kern from Germany and Nick Tandy from the UK broke the previous record for road legal sports cars (six minutes, 52.01 seconds) in their first attempt and subsequent­ly finished five laps, each coming in under six minutes, 50 seconds.

“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,” says Andreas Preuninger, director GT model line.

“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 sixhour race in Austin, Texas to the Nürburgrin­g, swapping the Le Mans prototype Porsche 919 hybrid for the 515kW GT2 RS with Michelin Pilot Cup 2 tyres in impressive style.

It was Kern, a Porsche test driver by trade with a passion for racing, who 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 subsequent record lap was achieved in the early evening in ideal outdoor conditions. As is customary for record drives, the time was measured along the 20.6km stretch. The vehicle’s average speed was 184.11km/h.

The fastest, most powerful road-legal 911 celebrated its world premiere at the Festival of Speed in Goodwood in the UK at the end of June. At the heart of this high-performanc­e sports car is a 515kW, flat-six biturbo engine, weighing in at 1,470kg with a full fuel tank.

Porsche says that its latest lightweigh­t rear-wheel drive two-seater coupé accelerate­s from 0-100km/h in 2.8 seconds, achieving a top speed of 340km/h with its motorsport­derived drive technology.

The latest version beats its 3.6l predecesso­r by 59kW and achieves a torque of 750Nm (an increase of 50Nm).

2.8 seconds is the twoseater coupé’s 0-100km/h sprint time, while it will achieve a top speed of 340km/h

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 ??  ?? Above: The 911 GT2 RS on the famous Nurburgrin­g Nordschlei­fe. Left: The crew attend to the car during the record attempt.
Above: The 911 GT2 RS on the famous Nurburgrin­g Nordschlei­fe. Left: The crew attend to the car during the record attempt.

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