Porsche 911 GT3 Sets Nurburgring Lap Record For Fastest Manual Car

The Porsche 911 GT3 has set a new lap record at the Nurburgring for being the fastest car with a manual gearbox. Piloted by former motorsports driver Jörg Bergmeister, the car did a lap time of 6:56.294 minutes, over 9.5 seconds faster than the previous record-holder, the Dodge Viper ACR, which held the record for nearly eight years. The new manual GT3 was also 3.66 seconds faster than its predecessor, the 992.1 equipped with Porsche’s PDK automatic gearbox.

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The Porsche 911 GT3 with a manual gearbox set a lap time of 6:56.294 minutes

It should, however, be noted that the Dodge Viper ACR’s lap time was set around the shortened 20.6 km circuit, and was originally 7:01.300 minutes. However, according to Porsche, this corresponds to a time of around 7:05.800 minutes on the full 20.832-kilometre lap.

Commenting on the new lap record, Andreas Preuninger, Director GT Model Line, said, “ More and more 911 GT3 customers are opting for the six-speed manual transmission. And more and more often, we are asked by these customers how fast a 911 GT3 with manual transmission would be on the Nordschleife. We have now answered this question and – although we know that the variant with PDK is significantly faster – we drove our official lap time with a manual six-speed gearbox. Even without the automated, super-fast and precise gearshifts of the PDK, and with a conventional instead of electronically controlled limited-slip differential, the new 911 GT3 shaved around 3.6 seconds off the time of its predecessor with PDK.

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The car that set the lap record was equipped with Porsche’s Weissach Package, an optional extra that shaves off 12 kg of weight over the standard GT3. Opting for the Weissach package equips the GT3 with carbon fibre trim pieces such as the front lid, roof, and rear wing. With the package, the car also gets a bolted rear roll cage in visible carbon in addition to six-point seatbelts. The car was also fitted with road-legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 R tyres (255/35 R20 at the front and 315/30 R21 at the rear).

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The Porsche 911 GT3 is powered by a 4.0-litre, naturally aspirated flat-six that revs up to 9000 rpm. The engine churns out 503 bhp and 450 Nm and comes paired with either a 6-speed manual or a 7-speed PDK automatic gearbox.