Porsche has reclaimed the record for the fastest lap time for a four-door production car at the iconic Nürburgring race track in Germany, less than a year after losing the mantle to China’s Xiaomi, one of the world’s leading smartphone companies.
The Xiaomi’s SU7 Ultra model, a tri-motor high-performance electric sedan, took the title last June, but Porsche has returned to the track with another special edition of the electric Taycan, shaving 10 seconds off Xiaomi’s time, and completing the lap in under 6 minutes 56 seconds on the almost 21 km track.
Kevin Giek, the head of the Taycan model line said the new Manthey Kit offers a “unique upgrade” for the Taycan Turbo GT. “The small but impactful project team from Manthey and Porsche has succeeded in transferring the Manthey DNA into a kit for electric vehicles. This effort has culminated in an impressive new Nordschleife record,” he said.
This lap record post got mixed comments with some congratulating the sports car brand and said: “Congrats Porsche! 🏆” Others compared it to the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra and said: “That’s actually pathetic considering this [Xiaomi SU7 Ultra] is only 9 seconds behind while costing ⅓ the price”.
The latest lap run with the Manthey Kit adds further performance to the 4-door sedan and has performed even better than the Weissach package it had used previously, which helped the car do the same lap in 7 minutes and 7 seconds.
The kit includes quite a few components, covering aerodynamic parts like the massive rear carbon-fibre wing, front diffuser, rear carbon aero discs to help reduce drag. These parts alone will help triple the downforce over the standard model.
Other components included cassis and suspension tuning as well as lighter 21-inch forged wheels, paired with street-legal wider tyres.
According to Porsche, the car that got that lap time was fitted with special track tyres, Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS, which likely provided better grip around corners.
On the braking front, the kit includes a larger braking system, performance brake pads for a significant bump in deceleration rate.
Powering was also increased with maximum discharge current from the battery being increased, helping with a 10-second Attack Mode, where 730 kW of power is available.
The latest lap time from Porsche in the Taycan Turbo GT with Manthey Kit appears to be in a highly modified car, which does not meet the “production” car description in our eyes.
We look forward to seeing what Xiaomi counters this with; after all, it’s the SU7 Ultra Prototype that lapped the same circuit in under 6 minutes and 23 seconds, over 30 seconds faster than the latest Porsche.
Porsche Taycan Turbo GT lap
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Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.