Rumours are emerging that an unnamed Porsche test-driver has lapped the Nurburgring at the wheel of the latest 997 GT3 RS in 7 minutes 33 seconds, the circuit was open to other cars but was described as having some ‘light’ traffic.
Porsche usually call upon the services of Herr Walter Rohrl to set their official ring times, so this might not be representative of the 450 PS GT3 RS’ full potential. Nevertheless in the pantheon of bragging rights, this time is right up there as one of the fastest of any series production car (ever).
Nissan’s latest GT-R recently lapped the ring in 7 minutes 27.56 seconds, not to mention the Corvette ZR1 which recorded a lap of 7 minutes 26.4 seconds, so I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of this.
Written By

Steve Davies
Steve is an investor, private equity advisor and former Partner at KPMG, PwC and Bain. Most importantly he's a life-long car enthusiast, mountain biker and active sports enthusiast. He designs and builds technology platforms and is the architect behind Transmission.
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For some reason, I don’t care that it didn’t quite match the GT-R’s time.
Lapping the Nurburgring under 8-minutes in a road car is as much about unplugging your sense of self-preservation as the cars outright pace.
There’s no doubt that the changes Porsche have made to this new GT3 RS have made it a far more capable machine than its predecessor, and there are very few production cars at any price that can lap a circuit so quickly.
When we tested Nissan’s GT-R against the 997 GT2 last year, it was the Porsche that had the upper hand, but much of the GT2’s advantage over the GT-R was on the longer straights.
The new GT3 RS is unlikely to hold such an advantage, so it would be interesting to compare their telemetry data and see where the relative strengths of each now lie.
As we said at the time, it doesn’t really matter which is quicker – anything that laps in the 7:30 – 7:45 range is definitely worthy of your attention.
For some reason, I don’t care that it didn’t quite match the GT-R’s time.
Lapping the Nurburgring under 8-minutes in a road car is as much about unplugging your sense of self-preservation as the cars outright pace.
There’s no doubt that the changes Porsche have made to this new GT3 RS have made it a far more capable machine than its predecessor, and there are very few production cars at any price that can lap a circuit so quickly.
When we tested Nissan’s GT-R against the 997 GT2 last year, it was the Porsche that had the upper hand, but much of the GT2’s advantage over the GT-R was on the longer straights.
The new GT3 RS is unlikely to hold such an advantage, so it would be interesting to compare their telemetry data and see where the relative strengths of each now lie.
As we said at the time, it doesn’t really matter which is quicker – anything that laps in the 7:30 – 7:45 range is definitely worthy of your attention.