Porsche’s new 911 GT3 with stick shift has recently beaten the previous lap record on the Nürburgring Nordschleife held by a competitor with a substantially more powerful engine, making it the fastest production car with a manual transmission there.
Indeed, Porsche brand ambassador Jörg Bergmeister has managed to set a new record of 6:56.294 at a 20.832-kilometer (12.944 miles) track, thus overshadowing the competition by more than 9.5 seconds, the vehicle manufacturer said in a recent press release.
As it happens, it took a competitor 7:01.300 minutes to complete a lap of the shortened 20.6-kilometer (12.8 miles) version of the track, corresponding to about 7:05.800 minutes on the full 20.832-kilometer lap.
Breaking the record with Porsche 911 GT3
Specifically, the record-breaking event took place on a sunny late afternoon, with an ambient temperature of 12°C (53.6°F) and a track temperature of 27°C (80.6°F), during which Bergmeister drove the 375 kW (510 hp) 911 GT3 with Weissach package, reaching a maximum speed of 293 km/h (182.06 mph).
Furthermore, the car was fitted with road-legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 R tyres (255/35 R20 at the front and 315/30 R21 at the rear), same as with the official lap of the previous model.
As it happens, the manual 911 GT3 with Weissach package also performed 3.633 seconds faster than its predecessor model, 992.1, with Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (DPK), thanks to the further development in terms of components relevant to performance.
Commenting on the development, Andreas Preuninger, Director of GT Model Line, explained:
“More and more 911 GT3 customers are opting for the six-speed manual transmission. And more and more often we are asked by these customers how fast a 911 GT3 with manual transmission would be on the Nordschleife (…) We have now answered this question and – although we know that the variant with PDK is significantly faster – we drove our official lap time with a manual six-speed gearbox.”
Furthermore, he added that, “even without the automated, super-fast and precise gearshifts of the PDK, and with a conventional instead of electronically controlled limited-slip differential, the new 911 GT3 shaved around 3.6 seconds off the time of its predecessor with PDK.”
Describing his experience when driving the record-breaking lap, Bergmeister pointed out that he was “faster in almost every corner,” that the car was “much more stable on bumps and over the curbs,” as well as that the 8% shorter gear ratio gave it a lot “more drive from the rear axle when accelerating with the same engine power.”
Elsewhere, the luxury automaker is planning to improve its vehicle design and pre-validation with super-realistic human interactive driving simulators, for which it has already developed a facility, and is now expanding it to bring even more efficiency in the testing of cars ahead of prototype production.
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