With a new lap record, Porsche makes the Nordschleife its playground yet again

Singapore – With the latest evolution of their legendary track-focused GT3, Porsche has outdone itself once more, with the 992.2 generation breaking the record as the fastest manual production car ever to round the Nürburgring Nordschleife. With Porsche brand ambassador Jörg Bergmeister setting a blistering time of 6:56.294 seconds, it has successfully snatched the crown from the 2017 Dodge Viper ACR by more than 9 and a half seconds. Mind you, that had four more cylinders and around 140 more horsepower at its disposal.

Due to improved aerodynamics and suspension, as well as being equipped with the first weight-stripping Weissach package ever available on a GT3, the manual version was even 3.633 seconds faster than the pre-facelift 992.1 GT3 with the more efficient Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (or much more easily known as PDK) gearbox.

Head of GT Cars, Andreas Preuninger, stated that with the rising popularity of the six-speed manual, more customers are inquiring about the speed of a manual GT3 around the Nordschleife. Thus, despite knowing that it would not be as quick as the PDK version, Porsche set its official lap time with the six-speed manual transmission.

“However, 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 beats its PDK-equipped predecessor by around 3.6 seconds,” he continued.

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“The new 911 GT3 inspires even more confidence at the limit than the previous model. I was faster around almost every corner,” says Jörg Bergmeister. “We learned a lot from the 911 GT3 RS, especially when it comes to the chassis. The car handles significantly more smoothly over bumps and curbs. And thanks to the eight percent shorter gear ratio, there’s noticeably more power to the rear axle when accelerating for the same engine power. Even though the seven-speed PDK would have been a few seconds faster, I definitely had more to do on the fast lap with the six-speed manual transmission, and therefore a bit more fun,” adds Bergmeister.

There’s currently no news on when the new 992.2 GT3 will be available on our shores, but when the time comes, I’ll be looking forward to seeing them being pushed to the limit at Sepang!

Text: Tan Kai Wyn
Photos: Porsche Singapore