Porsche Takes 911 Turbo Back to the 'Ring

It’s been a while since we’ve received a press release from Porsche that included the words “Nurburgring” and “lap time.” After suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of the apparently physics-defying Nissan GTR (how else can you explain it?!), the company’s 911 Turbo sports car finally had to concede it’s crown as the most capable sports car on the market to a car that costs tens of thousands of dollars less.

Of course, if you thought Porsche would leave it at that, you’d be terribly mistaken. With a long and illustrious history at the ‘ring, the German icon’s latest effort has apparently pushed the newly updated 911 Turbo to a lap time that cracks into the 7:30s with a time of 7 minutes, 39 seconds. The effect of a 55 pound reduction in weight and 20 extra horsepower (as well as undoubtedly hundreds of suspension, ECU, and chassis tweaks), the new time closes the gap but still falls short of vanquishing Godzilla’s latest time: an impossibly quick 7:28 scorcher of a lap time set by Fq1 driver Toshio Suzuki.