Porsche Humiliates Tesla at the Nürburgring

Zuffenhausen has knocked Tesla off its perch as king of the ‘ring, throwing down an all-electric lap time within a shout of the bonkers Rimac Nevera.

Sure, there’s plenty of valid argument that setting a lap time around what amounts to an arbitrary ribbon of tarmac in Germany – one with over 150 turns and stretching nearly 13 miles, no less – is a fool’s errand which proves little. Getting even one of those corners wrong can scupper a posted time and getting another go around isn’t exactly a simple task; this ain’t no 20 second lap at Martinsville.

Still, gearheads are a notably traditional lot, so we persist reporting on these things – especially when professional factory drivers reset notable records. This time around, Porsche development driver Lars Kern cracked off a lap time of 7:07.55 minutes on the Nordschleife, officially 26 seconds faster than the last Taycan effort in 2022 and over 17 seconds fleeter than the Tesla Model S Plaid's 7:25.23 time, the previous record in this vein.

Porsche is describing the car it used as a ‘pre-series Taycan’, suggesting the thing could be some sort of new high-performance trim set to debut when the model gets a midcycle refresh later this calendar year. This jives with the brand’s promise to release video footage of its 7:07.55 lap in mid-March. As for the car itself, a “legally prescribed” roll cage plus some racing bucket seats were installed but those are the only non-standard modifications described by Porsche. Smart money has this trim (called the GT? Maybe?) rocking a trio of electric motors with horsepower well into four-figure territory. Battery changes may also be in the offing to support longer bursts of balls-out driving. Let’s hope that’s the last time your author uses ‘burst’ and ‘balls’ in the same sentence.

We’ll keep our ears to the ground for news about the forthcoming Taycan refresh.

[Image: Porsche]

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