Porsche Smashes The Manual Nürburgring Lap Record, Humiliating America Twice In The Process

When Porsche announced the 992.2 facelift for the 911 GT3 late last year, there was plenty of excitement, but also an air of resignation. See, Porsche had to work miracles to make the boxer engine deliver the same horsepower without breaking emissions laws, and we soon learned that the naturally aspirated flat-six can only live on without electrical assistance or forced induction for another two years or so.

Thus, Porsche threw everything it could at the updated GT3, including its first Weissach Package. Many critics argued that this was a money grab, and considering the heavily inflated price over the 992.1, their arguments seemed to hold some water. But now, Porsche has silenced everyone by proving just how good the updated GT3 is with a new lap record for manual transmissions at the infamous Nürburgring – 6:56.294 – beating far more powerful cars in the process. There’s an onboard lap at the bottom of this article, and it’s worth watching.

Porsche Beats Two American Beasts In One Go

Now is a good time to recap some quick specs. The GT3’s 4.0-liter boxer engine produces 502 horsepower, all of which goes to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual with an 8% shorter final drive ratio. That’s not a huge amount of grunt, especially when you consider that the previous recordholder, the Dodge Viper ACR, delivered 645 horsepower from an 8.4-liter V10 engine. Clearly, engine output is not all that matters because the 992.2 GT3 (with the optional Weissach Package) set a time some 9.5 seconds quicker than the Viper ACR’s 7:01.3.

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Proving this point is another trivial nugget for the car nerd: despite less torque than the 992.1 GT3 (331 lb-ft compared to 346), Zuffenhausen’s new lightweight package for the GT3 with a manual transmission has resulted in a lap time 3.633 seconds quicker than the pre-facelift model with a PDK dual-clutch transmission. Not only that, but it’s beaten another two-pedal track beast that it wasn’t even competing with: the Mustang GTD.

Porsche GT3 Is Quicker Than Ford’s GT3 RS Rival

Late last year, the Mustang GTD achieved its initial goal of a sub-7-minute Nürburging time, beating its Viper compatriot with a time of 6:57.685. Conditions were far from perfect, and Ford wants to return for another crack at the GT3 RS’ lap record, which was set at the end of 2022 (6:49.328). With the regular GT3 now going more than a second quicker than the GTD could on the same tires as the 992.1, Ford has its work cut out for it.

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For those of us who favor the sensations of a manual transmission, this lap record serves as proof that a driver with sufficient skill (like Porsche brand ambassador Joerg Bergmeister) can easily keep pace with those in more powerful, faster-shifting cars. It’s also yet another confirmation that Porsche knows the ‘Ring better than anyone else and has a unique ability to extract astonishing performance from a chassis setup without resorting to more power. It’s so confident in its abilities that this record was foreshadowed four months ago. Just imagine what the inevitable GT2 RS variant will be capable of…