Porsche 911 GT3 manual sets new Green Hell lap record

A 911 GT3 has broken through the seven-minute mark to dislodge the V10-engined Dodge Viper ACR as the fastest manual around the Nurburgring. 

It beat the previous fastest lap by nearly 10 seconds. At the wheel of the GT3 was Jörg Bergmeister. He set a new best time for a manual car of 6min 56.294sec.

That’s 3.6sec quicker than the pre-facelift 992 with a PDK automatic gearbox. It is also substantially quicker than the previous record holder, the Dodge Viper ACR, which has a more powerful engine. 

The American supercar features a 481kW 8.4-litre V10. It completed its record lap time of 7min 1.3sec in 2017. However, that was around the shorter 20.6km circuit and corresponds to a time of 7min 5.8sec around the full-length 20.832km loop. That’s according to Porsche.

By their computations, the 375kW flat-six GT3 was 9.5sec faster around the current circuit. 

The vehicle used for the attempt had the Weissach Package fitted. That’s a $NZ45k optional extra that shaves 12kg from the standard GT3. It also ran Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 R tyres.

Porsche reckons that increasing numbers of 911 GT3 customers are opting for the six-speed manual transmission. 

The reason for the record attempt? The new owners wanted to know how fast a 911 GT3 with a manual transmission would be on the Nordschleife. That’s why we Porsche used this instead of the PDK variant which “is significantly faster.”

Porsche says that just over half of wingless GT3 Touring cars they sell have a manual transmission.