Porsche set a new lap record for street-legal passenger cars around the famed Nurburgring Nordschleife in Germany. The 911 GT2 RS covered 20.6-kilometre road course in a time of 6 minutes and 47.3 seconds in the presence of a notary and surpassed even Porsche’s own expectations. The GT2 RS is the fastest Porsche 911 of all time.

“At the start of the development process, we set ourselves a lap time target for the GT2 RS of less than 7 minutes and 5 seconds,” said Frank-Steffen Walliser, Vice President Motorsport and GT Cars. “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 ever built”.

This record was not a one-off lap. Lars Kern from Germany and Nick Tandy from the UK broke the previous record for road-approved sports cars of 6 minutes, 52.01 seconds in their first attempt and completed five laps in under 6 minutes, 50 seconds.

“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,” said 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 700 hp 911 GT2 RS which was fitted with Michelin Pilot Cup 2 tires. It was Lars Kern, a Porsche test driver, who ultimately 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 began at 7:11 pm and finished 6 minutes and 47.3 seconds later in ideal outdoor conditions. As is customary for record drives, the time was measured along the 20.6-kilometre stretch. The vehicle’s average speed was 184.11 km/h.

The fastest and most powerful road-approved 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 700 hp 6 cylinder biturbo boxer engine. Weighing in at 1,470 kg with a full fuel tank, the lightweight two-seater accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds. The rear-wheel drive coupe has a top speed of 340 km/h and with its near-motorsport drive technology, the new 911 GT2 RS trumps its 3.6-litre predecessor by 80 hp and achieves a torque of 553 lb-ft, an increase of 37 lb-ft.

There is a huge premium to pay for the fastest 911 ever. The Porsche 911 GT2 RS costs a staggering $171,000 more than the already potent and extremely capable 911 GT3. The GT3 has a Canadian base price of $163,000 and the GT2 RS starts at $334,000 plus fees and taxes.