New Porsche Taycan trounces Tesla at the ‘Ring

The most powerful example of Porsche’s Taycan electric sports sedan has lapped Germany’s daunting Nürburgring circuit a full 28 seconds faster than the Tesla Model S Plaid.

The time of 7 minutes 7.55 seconds eclipses Porsche’s previous best by 26 seconds or “half an eternity in motorsport,” according to Taycan model line boss Kevin Giek. It’s been achieved thanks to as-yet-unannounced updates to the Taycan believed to be included in a new Turbo GT model. From the images captured at the Green Hell you can see a massive rear wing, reprofiled front and rear bumpers and revised headlamps, but the key to this extraordinary lap time is a hefty power increase, believed to up the ante to almost 1000 hp.

For context the fastest production car ever to lap the 13-mile, 156-corner race track is the Mercedes-AMG One, which achieved the feat in 6:35.18. The fastest Porsche isn’t too far behind with a Manthey Performance Kit-equipped 911 GT2 RS managing 6:43.30, while the 918 Spyder lapped in 6:57.00. However when it comes to all-electric lap times the Taycan is perilously close to record taken by the 1900-hp Rimac Nevera, which turned in a time of 7:05.28.

The Taycan was driven by Porsche test driver Lars Kern who “pushed as hard as he could” over repeated laps on the empty circuit. “The impressive thing about it is that over several laps, Lars clocked almost exactly the same time,” adds Giek. Over to you Elon.