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New Porsche 911 GT3 RS sets sub 7-min lap time at Nürburgring

Only five street legal production cars have set this feat.

Autodeal on Apr 27, 2018

The new Porsche 911 GT3 RS made a sub seven-minute lap time at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, beating its predecessor’s record by an astounding 24 seconds.

Related: 2019 Porsche 911 GT3 RS is most powerful 911 production car

The GT3 RS was put through its paces by Porsche Works driver Kévin Estre, who also happens to drive for the German outfit at the World Endurance Championship (WEC). He was able to set a blistering lap time of 6:56.4 around the legendary race track.

Now why is this a big deal? Well, only five street legal production cars have set a sub seven minute lap time at the track dubbed as the “Green Hell” and three of those are Porsche vehicles including the 911 GT3 RS.

Porsche 911 GT2 RS – 6:47.25
Lamborghini Huracan LP 640-4 Performante – 6:52.01
Porsche 911 GT3 RS – 6:56.4
Porsche 918 Spyder – 6:57.0
Lamborghini Aventador LP 750-4 Superveloce – 6:59.73

The Porsche 911 GT3 RS was equipped with the latest Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R (265/35 ZR 20 front and 325/30 ZR 21 rear), and optimized for track use. It also had a motorsport-bred chassis that offered superb driving dynamics, paired with a naturally-aspirated 520 hp 4L engine.

All four lap times of both drivers were below seven minutes and only tenths of a second apart. This proves not only the outstanding power of the GT3 RS, but also its extraordinary driveability. A perfectly composed overall system allows for highly dynamic performance even with a relatively modest engine power. For a driver, each of the car’s thousands of parts have to feel like one – that’s an unbeatable strength of the GT3 RS. And what especially delights me is how much fun Lars and Kévin had when driving that car.

Andreas Preuninger
Director GT Model Line

The Nürburgring Nordschleife is a 20.6 km circuit with 170 turns that go around Germany’s Eifel forest offering endless challenge even to veteran race car drivers. In comparison, the longest track in the 2018 Formula 1 calendar – Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps – is just 7 km long and has a total of 19 turns.