Porsche and Lamborghini are constantly battling for the Nurburgring lap record crown. Back in July, the Lamborghini Aventador Superveloce Jota became the king of the Ring after setting a time of six minutes and 44.97 seconds. That was enough to beat the Porsche 911 GT2 RS by more than two seconds, which held the previous record since last September. Porsche was never going to let Lamborghini steal the spotlight for long, however.
The Porsche 911 GT2 RS has already reclaimed the crown and is once again the fastest road-legal car to ever lap the Nurburgring with a time of six minutes and 40.3 seconds.
There is a caveat, though – the 911 GT2 RS wasn’t stock. The GT2 RS was modified and "set up for the 'Nordschleife' by Porsche engineers and Manthey-Racing experts" using experience gained from the development of the 911 RSR and 911 GT3 R race cars. Manthey-Racing also pits a pair of 911 RSRs World Endurance Championship and develops aftermarket parts for the Porsche that are road-legal.
The GT2 RS that took the Nurburgring crown came with a performance kit from Manthey-Racing that enabled the car to lap the Nurburgring nearly seven seconds faster than the standard car. Porsche says "the targeted modifications included the areas of chassis and aerodynamics” but didn’t provide any further details. “The technicians focused on suitability for on-road driving at all times,” the automaker added.
All the modifications made to the GT2 RS are road-legal in Europe and available to buy through Manthey-Racing. The only modification made to the record-breaking sports car that isn’t available to the public was a racing bucket seat for safety reasons, but this didn’t affect the car’s weight.
Behind the wheel of the modified GT2 RS was Lars Kern, the same Porsche test driver and development engineer that set a record lap in the standard GT2 RS last year. “The drive was great fun,” he said. “The balance of the car is also very good with the new package. I did not have to take any great risks to be fast. But I only had one attempt because it was already getting dark. It worked out first time though.” Manthey-Racing CEO Nicolas Raeder added: “We are very proud. It was a great challenge to make the already tremendously fast Porsche 911 GT2 RS even faster.”
Porsche probably shouldn't get complacent though, as the Aston Martin Valkyrie and Mercedes-AMG One hypercars will soon be gunning for new Nurburgring lap records.
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