Billed as being the fastest and most powerful Porsche 911 of all time, the GT2 RS is now the undisputed Lord of the Nürburgring when it comes to road-legal production cars that have a rear-wheel-drive layout. The goal was to do a lap of the Green Hell in less than 7 minutes and 5 seconds, but Porsche managed to beat that by a whopping 17.7 seconds.
Porsche factory driver Nick Tandy and test driver Lars Kern were both tasked on September 20 to tackle the demanding track and they did five laps with two different cars in less than 6 minutes and 50 seconds. Kern ultimately managed to do the fastest lap by crossing the finish line of the demanding 20.6-kilometer track in an amazing 6 minutes and 47.3 seconds and was registered with an average speed of 184.11 kph (114.4 mph).
The performance achieved by Kern makes the 911 GT2 RS about 10 seconds quicker than the 918 Spyder, which was driven by Porsche factory race driver Marc Lieb on September 4, 2013 to a lap record of 6:57.
While Porsche says the 911 GT2 RS has established “a new record for road-approved sports cars,” let’s keep in mind the street-legal McLaren P1 LM did a lap of the Nurburgring earlier this year in only 6 minutes and 43.2 seconds. There’s also the fully electric Nio EP9 with a lap time of 6:45.9. That being said, we should point out both the McLaren and Nio are not exactly regular production cars, since the former is limited to five cars whereas the latter was made in 16 examples (6 for company investors and 10 for customers).
If we were to compare the 911 GT2 RS to another regular production car, the Huracan Performante is its closest rival, with a lap time of 6:52.01 in the hands of Lamborghini test driver Marco Mapelli on October 5, 2016. As a side note, that time was improved by Lars Kern and Nick Tandy in the two Porsches right from their first attempts.
Porsche hasn’t said how many units of the 911 GT2 RS it will make, but surely there are going to be a lot more than the P1 LMs and EP9s combined. It is believed about 1,000 cars will be produced, at $293,200 a pop in the United States.
Source: Porsche
Gallery: Porsche 911 GT2 RS Nurburgring Record
GT2 RS is the fastest Porsche 911 of all time at 6 minutes, 47.3 seconds
Stuttgart. Porsche set a new record for road-approved sports cars on the 20.6-kilometre Nürburgring Nordschleife in the 911 GT2 RS on September 20. The record time of 6 minutes and 47.3 seconds was achieved in the presence of a notary and surpassed even Porsche’s own expectations. 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”.
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-approved sports cars (6 minutes, 52.01 seconds) in their first attempt and subsequently finished five laps 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, swapping the Le Mans prototype Porsche 919 Hybrid for the 515-kW (700-hp) 911 GT2 RS with Michelin Pilot Cup 2 tyres in impressive style. It was Lars Kern, a Porsche test driver by trade with a passion for racing, 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 subsequent record lap began at 7:11 pm and finished 6 minutes and 47.3 seconds later in ideal outdoor conditions. As is customary for record drives, the time was measured along the 20.6-kilometre stretch. The vehicle’s average speed was 184.11 km/h.
The fastest and most powerful road-approved 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 515-kW (700-hp) six-cylinder biturbo flat engine. Weighing in at 1,470 kg with a full fuel tank, the lightweight two-seater accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds. The rear-wheel drive Coupé has a top speed of 340 km/h and with its near-motorsport drive technology, the new 911 GT2 RS trumps its 3.6-litre predecessor by 59 kW (80 hp) and achieves a torque of 750 Newton metres (an increase of 50 Nm).