The Nürburgring may be heaven for the likes of the Porsche 911 GT3 and GT3 RS, but the Taycan electric sedan has had to dig deeper to reclaim its title as the fastest EV around the circuit.
In late 2023, Porsche announced the Taycan Turbo GT – equipped with its optional Weissach package – had set the quickest time for a production EV at the 20.832km Nürburgring Nordschleife track, lapping the venue in seven minutes and 7.55 seconds.
However, it was later displaced by the Rimac Nevera hypercar (seven minutes and 5.30 seconds) then the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra (seven minutes and 4.96 seconds), the latter of which held the record until the world’s fastest car, the Yangwang U9 Xtreme, beat it with a six minutes and 59.16-second lap.
Now, Porsche once again holds the production EV title, after the Taycan Turbo GT received upgrades from its racing partner Manthey Racing, the firm responsible for the fastest 911s at the Nürburgring, to set a time of six minutes and 55.53 seconds.
Like the 911s, the Manthey kit consists of retuned vehicle software, lightweight 21-inch forged wheels (shod in Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS tyres), and additional aerodynamic parts (rear wing with bigger endplates, larger front splitter, rear diffuser and rear wheel aerodiscs) which increased its downforce levels from 95kg to 310kg at 200km/h.
The Manthey kit also represents a first for any Porsche, increasing its powertrain outputs, resulting in a 20kW power increase to 600kW in its standard driving mode, while peak torque has jumped from 1240Nm to 1270Nm using launch control.
An additional 130kW can be unlocked using the Taycan’s Attack Mode, bringing total power up to 730kW.
To cope with the extra speed, the front brakes have also grown in size from 420mm to 440mm, paired with higher performance brake pads.
As a result, the fitment of the Manthey kit cut approximately 12 seconds from the Taycan Turbo GT’s original time.
Despite this, it’s still slower than the 911 GT3 equipped with a Manthey kit, which last month set a time of six minutes and 52.981, despite producing almost half as much power and one-third the amount of torque as the Taycan.
