Porsche 911 GT2 could break Nurburbring record
Sub-7min Nurburgring lap time hint for new 911 GT2 RS from Porsche GT bossPorsche aiming for production car lap record at the Nurburgring with the new 911 GT2 RS
The boss of Porsche Motorsport and the man in charge of the sports car maker’s GT car program, Frank-Steffen Walliser, has hinted that the company’s new 911 GT2 RS could break the seven-minute barrier at the Norschleife.
Just unveiled at this weekend's Festival of Speed, the new rear-wheel drive 700hp (515kW) GT2 goes into production in October. The first examples will arrive Down Under early in 2018 priced from around $645,000.
The ultimate expression of 911 performance, the new car is almost 200kg lighter than the standard 911 Turbo S and features ceramic brakes as standard.
Unlike some other race-orientated specials, however, Porsche execs say the GT2 RS is subject to the same road-car validation testing as 'ordinary' 911s.
In fact, some testing is tougher, including a 120-hour test that apes the stresses on the car set at the super-fast Sebring circuit in the USA.
The old (997-series) 911 GT RS set a time of 7:18 at the Nurburgring, a time since bettered by the latest 911 GT3 in May, at 7:12.7.
While Walliser says the company is still to set a lap time with the GT2 RS at the infamous German circuit, he's given the best hint yet that the time could break the magic (for road cars) seven-minute barrier.
"This is the seventh generation of the 911. It's all about sevens… It's 700hp but it's no seven at the Nurburgring," he teased.
"Wait and see. Give us some time and we will check it," he said.
Porsche's million-dollar 918 Spyder hypercar time of 6:57.73sec held the road-car record until earlier this year. It was controversially knocked off the top step by Lamborghini's Huracan Performante variant in March.
Questioned on the GT2 RS ability to better the 6:52.01 time set by the Lamborghini, Walliser was pointed in his reply.
"I will say one more thing about [the Nurburgring lap-time]… We [will] use the tyres we sell to the customers. We [will] use the engine that the customer will have in his car. This is the Porsche approach.
"I'm not going for lap times that the customer cannot achieve. Full stop… No comparison to competitors, but that is how we do it," Walliser stated.
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