It was only a matter of time before Porsche’s Panamera had to measure itself up against the performance car yardstick of the Green Hell, and it hasn’t disappointed.

The time that needed to be beaten was Cadillac’s year-old 7m 59s lap, which was set by John Heinricy in the 556bhp CTS-V and marked the fastest time ever set by a four-door road car.

Porsche’s Walter Röhrl has knocked a comfortable three seconds off that time with a 7m 56s in a PCCB-equipped Panamera Turbo. The big four door saloon (surely it’s a hatchback?) gives away just over 50bhp and weighs 65kg more than the CTS at 1970kg. We’ll be waiting for the video with baited breath and hoping for some track side footage, since the Turbo looked utterly hilarious barrelling into Copse in Chris’ hands last week at Silverstone it should look insane through Pflanzgarten.

Given how easily GM has held onto the record, we probably won’t have long to wait until they’ve scraped together a few quid and gone back to Germany for a crack at Porsche’s time.

Let battle commence.

To refresh your memory of the first punch, here’s a video of Heinricy’s CTS-V lap:

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