Yes, yes, another fast Porsche going very quickly around the Nurburgring. You’ve seen it all before, right? Not this time, promise. Because the latest 911 GT3 RS, complete with a Weissach Package, Cup 2Rs and 860kg of downforce, has lapped the 20.8km Nordschleife lap in 6:49.328 seconds. With just 525hp, don’t forget.
It’s a genuinely extraordinary time, just when it seemed like the laps couldn’t get any crazier. It’s not far off a second per horsepower faster than the standard, 510hp 992 GT3 (6:59.93) which goes to show just how much say the overhauled aero is having. And get this: on the old record loop, this RS recorded a 6:44.848. On the same lap, a 918 Spyder did 6:57 in 2013. Back then, the notion of a mere 911 going so much faster with 350hp less would have sounded like science fiction.
The lap itself, driven by Jorg Bergmeister, is absorbing to say the least. Neither the acceleration nor maximum speeds are all that by the standards of mega Nordschleife laps - 280km/h at Schwedenkreuz, 290km/h down the Dottinger Hohe - but the cornering is out of this world. You can watch Bergmeister (also the man responsible for that GT4 RS lap) barely brake for corners that memory and your eyes will tell you require much more stopping. It’s incredible. Watch the run out from Bergwerk at 3:10 through to Klostertal and the Karussell section; it scythes through the high speed stuff here and around the lap like a 911 never has.
Oh yes, and apparently this wasn’t even a good day for a lap, with a headwind on the Dottinger Hohe and cold tarmac. Andreas Preuninger was merely ‘satisfied’ with the time. So presumably the GT3 RS could go even faster still. Bergmeister added: "Especially in the fast sections, the 911 GT3 RS is in a league of its own. Here the car is on a level that you otherwise only know from high-class race cars. The car also sets new standards in braking. This makes fast laps on the Nordschleife simply a lot of fun."
But this wasn’t a record-breaking run, amazingly. The GT3 RS must be the fastest naturally aspirated production car to get around the lap, however the Nurburgring doesn’t have a category for that. By the ‘sports car’ class it falls into (which rather sells those vehicles short), the 992 is a little behind the AMG GT Black Series and old 991 GT2 RS with the Manthey goodies. That’s the mad world we live in. Heaven knows where we’ll end up when Manthey get to work on this RS - and then the GT2 will turn up…
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