- Porsche 911 GT2 RS beats expectations
- Top speed of the new coupé is 340km/h
- Not one record lap – but SIX in a row
ATLANTA, Georgia – Porsche has set a lap record for atreet-legal sport cars with a 2018 911 GT2 RS on the 21km Nürburgring-Nordschleife.
The lap was officially officially timed on September 20 2017 at 6min47.3 – which was faster than the German automaker had anticipated.
Frank-Steffen Walliser, head of motorsport and GT cars at Porsche AG, told The Corner in a media communication: “At the start of development we set a lap target for the GT2 RS of less than 7min05. Credit for beating this target by 17.7sec goes to our development engineers, mechanics and drivers and an exceptionally strong team performance.
“This result makes it official: the GT2 RS is not only the most powerful but also the fastest 911 yet built.”
The record lap was not a single occurrence: Germany’s Lars Kern/Briton Nick Tandy broke the record for street-legal sports cars (6min52.01) immediately and proceeded to lap the track in under 6min50 for five laps.
Andreas Preuninger, director of the GT model line, said later: “It’s not just the record time achieved by the GT2 RS that demonstrates the vehicle’s calibre but also the consistent performance.
“We’re particularly proud that this was achieved with different vehicles and different drivers, underscoring the ability of the GT2 RS to produce the record over and over again.”
READ MORE Porsche features on Carman’s Corner
Porsche factory driver Tandy travelled directly from a six-hour race in Austin, Texas, to the ‘Ring and adapted from driving a Le Mans prototype Porsche 919 Hybrid to the 525kW 911 GT2 RS fitted with standard N-spec Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres “in impressive fashion”.
Kern, a Porsche test driver by trade, a passionate race driver in his own right, set the fastest time. The record lap began under ideal conditions at 7.11pm local time and ended 6min47.3 later. Average speed: 182km/h.
MORE POWERFUL THAN PREDECESSOR
The heart of the high-performance sport car is a twin-turbo flat-six engine producing 525kW which enables the 1470kg two-seater to accelerate to 100km/h in 2.7sec. Top track speed of the rear-wheel drive coupé was 340km/h.
The new 911 GT2 RS, thanks to the race-bred power train, is more powerful than its predecessor, with its 3.6-litre engine, by 60kW and is capable of as much as 750Nm.
