Speed record proves this is the fastest road legal car

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, vice president 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 one-off: 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.

Consistent performance

"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 six-hour 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.

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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 bi-turbo engine, weighing in at 1,470kg with a full fuel tank.

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

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

Source: Business Day