Wednesday 3rd January 2024

New Taycan smashes EV Nurburgring saloon record

No name yet for mega Porsche Taycan, but a lap time within 2.5 seconds of a Rimac...

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We’ve become familiar over the years with Porsche conjuring up Nurburgring lap times bordering on the unbelievable. From the 918 Spyder lapping under seven minutes to GT3s embarrassing cars with hundreds more horsepower, Porsche knows what it’s doing when it comes to really racy road cars. Now that extends to the Taycan EV as well: a new model has just lapped in 7:07.55. 

You read that right. Just ten seconds off that 918 Spyder lap, within a fraction of the Rimac Nevera (7:05.298) for fastest production EV ever, and a huge 26 seconds faster than the previous Turbo S with performance pack, this is an obscenely fast Taycan. It’s taken almost 18 seconds off the previous best time set by a Model S Plaid Track Package last year. We’ve all heard enough by now of events being unprecedented, though surely nobody (outside of Porsche at least) expected such a leap to be made. 

While the lap time is official, there’s precious little info about the Taycan itself just yet. Porsche describes it as a ‘pre-series’ model, so presumably it’ll enter production at some point - it isn’t really Porsche’s thing to produce one-off record breakers. Compared to a Turbo S this car is notable for the body kit, with both rear spoiler and front splitter more aggressive than standard. They will surely have helped with high-speed stability on a circuit where that can really pay dividends. (Porsche says the gap between old and new is so large that this one finished its lap 1.3km ahead of the Turbo S.)

We don’t know how much power this car makes just yet. Having 915 in the number plate would surely be too obvious a giveaway for horsepower, though clearly this Taycan must be significantly more potent than a standard (761hp overboost, 625hp otherwise) Turbo S given time laid down. How close exactly to 1,000hp it’ll be remains to be seen.

“Twenty-six seconds is half an eternity in motorsport. Lars’ (Kern, driven for both Taycan attempts) lap time of 7:07.55 minutes on the Nordschleife is sensational, putting the Taycan in the same league as electric hypercars,” said head of the Taycan model line, Kevin Giek. “And the impressive thing about it is that over several laps, Lars clocked almost exactly the same time.” Sadly there’s not a video of Kern’s exploits just yet, though one is said to be coming in mid March. Which will presumably be when we find out a little more about just what this incredible Taycan actually is. 

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• Rimac Nevera Time Attack marks new ‘ring record
• Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio vs Porsche Taycan 4S

[Wab1974uk]

The sooner solid state batteries come into production the better.

Fair bet most people would rather a new Taycan (and every other EV) could comfortably get 600-800 miles per charge, rather than chasing Rimac performance,

[Nish Gnackers]

Buyers may also prefer a reliable EV that doesn't depreciate like a DFS sofa.

[British Beef]

Im a car nut, but this news neither interests nor surprises me.

I would much rather watch the chap in the Dodge Viper ACR muscling it around the ring in 7:01, with a (quite big) NA engine, manual box and only rear wheel drive, that is impressive!

[BFleming]

The Nurburgring has been closed for the last 6 weeks while they do the usual round of resurfacing and safety improvements. How long have they sat on this particular press release? I'd guess 4+ months.

[Nomme de Plum]

Great achievement. 99.9% of people do not need 800miles from a single charge. Half of that is more than enough.

The cars that will be available in 2035 will be so much better tan those of today.

[Gecko1978]

Nomme de Plum said:

Great achievement. 99.9% of people do not need 800miles from a single charge. Half of that is more than enough.

The cars that will be available in 2035 will be so much better tan those of today.

Agree 800 miles but it's nit about that distance it's more about not having to fill up (charge) all the time.

Still seems fast I assume this will just add to the number of used unsold EVs out therr

[Nomme de Plum]

Nish Gnackers said:

Buyers may also prefer a reliable EV that doesn't depreciate like a DFS sofa.

Perhaps you should come to terms with the depreciation of cars returning to pre-pandemic levels. Typically a 3 year old car with average mileage would be 50% of its new cost excluding options.

[Nomme de Plum]

Gecko1978 said:

Nomme de Plum said:

Great achievement. 99.9% of people do not need 800miles from a single charge. Half of that is more than enough.

The cars that will be available in 2035 will be so much better tan those of today.

Agree 800 miles but it's nit about that distance it's more about not having to fill up (charge) all the time.

Still seems fast I assume this will just add to the number of used unsold EVs out therr

I have an EV with a range of 180 miles. It gets topped up every week or two. I had the Taycan last year for a few months. It rarely saw a charger. I think the range was a bit under 400km.

How many unsold EVs are there and can you post the numbers for iCE as well for reference.

[Arsecati]

I'm calling BS on this, as there is just no way this is faster than the Tesla Plaid. Everyone in the world knows that Tesla are the best cars in the world (not just EV, but ALL cars). Even if they show video, we all know it will be sped up somehow, as anything from VAG is a lie.

[bobo]

as interesting as a v fast fridge !

[Simoninspalding]

BFleming said:

The Nurburgring has been closed for the last 6 weeks while they do the usual round of resurfacing and safety improvements. How long have they sat on this particular press release? I'd guess 4+ months.

Looking at the trees and grass in the pictures I would agree, probably August, September at the latest.

[ChrisCh86]

bobo said:

as interesting as a v fast fridge !

Agreed!

A heavy, expensive, obsolete car that'll be irrelevant in about 5 minutes. Lease, don't buy...

The rest of us can walk get the train or stick with ICE

[Nish Gnackers]

Nomme de Plum said:

Nish Gnackers said:

Buyers may also prefer a reliable EV that doesn't depreciate like a DFS sofa.

Perhaps you should come to terms with the depreciation of cars returning to pre-pandemic levels. Typically a 3 year old large French saloon car with average mileage would be 50% of its new cost excluding options.

FTFY

I've never had a new car that has depreciated anything like that %age, and I've been buying new cars since 1975.

[o0Bee0o]

Over to you, Lotus Emeya...

[steveb8189]

Wab1974uk said:

The sooner solid state batteries come into production the better.

Fair bet most people would rather a new Taycan (and every other EV) could comfortably get 600-800 miles per charge, rather than chasing Rimac performance,

That's not how it tends to work with EV cars though..

Taycan with Performance battery: electricity consumption combined 26.4 kWh/100 km (NEDC); 23.5 – 19.6 kWh/100 km (WLTP)
Taycan with Performance battery Plus: electricity consumption combined 27.0 kWh/100 km (NEDC); 23.9 – 20.4 kWh/100 km (WLTP)
Taycan 4S with Performance battery: electricity consumption combined 25.4 kWh/100 km (NEDC); 24.0 – 19.8 kWh/100 km (WLTP)
Taycan 4S with Performance battery Plus: electricity consumption combined 25.8 kWh/100 km (NEDC); 24.1 – 20.4 kWh/100 km (WLTP)
Taycan Turbo: electricity consumption combined 26.0 kWh/100 km (NEDC); 23.6 – 20.2 kWh/100 km (WLTP)
Taycan Turbo S: electricity consumption combined 26.0 kWh/100 km (NEDC); 23.4 – 21.9 kWh/100 km (WLTP)

More performance = same range. In fact, more powerful models are often more economical due to additional regenerative braking

[CG2020UK]

That is a seriously quick time!

Do reckon that this will be a £180k+ car which is a scary thought.

Impressive all the same.

[Horsebox Man]

Arsecati said:

I'm calling BS on this, as there is just no way this is faster than the Tesla Plaid. Everyone in the world knows that Tesla are the best cars in the world (not just EV, but ALL cars). Even if they show video, we all know it will be sped up somehow, as anything from VAG is a lie.

[Blib]

CG2020UK said:

That is a seriously quick time!

Do reckon that this will be a £180k+ car which is a scary thought.

Impressive all the same.

It won't be a £180k+ car for long, though.

[Nomme de Plum]

Nish Gnackers said:

Nomme de Plum said:

Nish Gnackers said:

Buyers may also prefer a reliable EV that doesn't depreciate like a DFS sofa.

Perhaps you should come to terms with the depreciation of cars returning to pre-pandemic levels. Typically a 3 year old large French saloon car with average mileage would be 50% of its new cost excluding options.

FTFY

I've never had a new car that has depreciated anything like that %age, and I've been buying new cars since 1975.

I'm older than you then.

We had something called Glasses guide which was considered the go to pricing reference in the trade.

If you were buying new cars back then you would also be aware that fleet buyers would get 25-30% discount compared to normal retail prices and when sales targets needed to me met individuals could get 15% easily and sometimes more.

When the 911 991 first came out a mate bout one for just over £100K a couple of months later he was offered a rather lucrative contract in The ME. Porsche gave him the princely sum of £74K.

There was also a significant difference between trade in and selling back. Trade in values were higher as it was offset against the large profit margin on new cars.

[Nomme de Plum]

Just had a look at CarGurus.

Cheapest Taycan I can see is a 2020 4S with over 50,000 miles. The base 4S was £84K back then so price Seems OK but not at all cheap. With options it would have been over £100K