There’s a new sheriff in town—the sheriff, being of an EV persuasion, and the town, being the infamous Nürburgring.
The Porsche Taycan Turbo GT (w/ Weissach Package) in conjunction with enhancements from the latest Manthey Kit, was able to set a time of 6:55.533 around the Green Hell. This collaboration has helped the German automaker’s EV platform reclaim its place atop the “electric executive cars” leaderboard at the world’s most rigorous proving grounds, beating previous category holder—the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra—by over 9 seconds in the process.
The Manthey Taycan Turbo GT is also 12 seconds faster than the “regular” Taycan Turbo GT, which set its own official ‘Ring time back in late 2023. Both benchmarks were achieved by development driver Lars Kern, all but quashing any potential arguments that could be had about operator variables. As an aside, which I’m sure Porsche would be very happy to add, the Manthey Taycan Turbo GT is also close to 4 seconds faster than the Yangwang U9 Extreme, which posted an overall production electric car record time of 6:59.157 a few months earlier. This result ultimately underlines both Porsche and Manthey’s more balanced philosophy to their ‘Ring conquests, with the U9 Extreme’s most notable features being its combined 3,000 hp and a top speed of 496.22 km/h.
Per Porsche’s press release, the Manthey Kit has been “engineered as one complete system” and “combines chassis optimization and increased power, pushing performance to a new level”. The most visually notable change would have to be the suite of aerodynamic updates provided by the Kit, which is said to increase downforce by up to 3 times over the standard car, for a total of 740 kg at top speed. This was a key proponent in keeping the car stable around the many highly-technical-high-speed corners at the Nordschleife. At first glance, many of the updates are easy to spot. There’s a larger rear wing with massive end plates, a more aggressive front splitter, rear diffuser and ground effects, and carbon fender flares on all four wheel arches. Going against their usual convention, Manthey also bumped the Taycan Turbo GT’s max horsepower output for both regular and Attack (overboost) modes by optimizing the battery.
“Our goal was to further enhance the already exceptional performance of the Taycan Turbo GT specifically for use on the racetrack,” explains Christian Müller, Technical Project Manager for Taycan special vehicles at Porsche. “Together with the experts from Manthey, we have comprehensively tuned the aerodynamics and suspension, as well as the wheel/tyre combination, for maximum circuit performance.”
Porsche—and Manthey—have been very busy with ‘Ring exploits lately, achieving relatable outcomes with their latest 992 GT3 RS collaboration. Amidst all the fanfare surrounding the 3 RS and Taycan Turbo GT, they also, rather inconspicuously, did the same with the 992.2 GT3. That onboard video can also be viewed below, for your viewing pleasure.
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