New 911 GT3 RS Goes Through ‘Green Hell’, Sets Lap Time of 6:56.4 mins

Recently, the brand new Porsche 911 GT3 RS set another benchmark for road-approved sports cars at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife circuit in Germany. Dubbed the ‘Green Hell’, this circuit is the world’s most demanding race track.

Porsche Works race driver, Frenchman Kévin Estre, set a lap time of 6:56.4 minutes with the 520 hp GT3 RS. The lap time was a staggering 24 seconds faster than the previous best time achieved with another GT3 RS model.

L-R: Lars Kern and Kévin Estre after the hot lap at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

The record lap was achieve at 11:40am in ideal conditions, with 14 degree Celsius ambient and 18 degree Celsius track temperature. 

“This lap was a sensational experience for me,” Estre revealed afterwards. “Through the fast corners and on the brakes in particular, the GT3 RS is unbelievably close to our racing car GT3 R. This is also thanks to the new generation of tyres for road going sports cars. I like the engine of the GT3 RS a lot. Up to 9,000 revs per minute from a six-cylinder engine just feels fantastic. The sound is a dream and the torque is massive.” 

Watch the full vid here :

German Lars Kern, who is Porsche development driver, was sharing driving duties with Estre. Kern was the one who lapped the Nürburgring in 7 minutes 38 seconds in Panamera Turbo in 2016.

The new GT3 RS had its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show in early March this year. Equipped with a motorsport-bred chassis and 383kW (520hp), four-litre, naturally aspirated engine, it accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds, reaching a top speed of 312 km/h.

Following the footsteps of the 918 Spyder and the 911 GT2 RS, the GT3 RS is the third production Porsche sports car with a notarised lap time of less than seven minutes. As is customary for record drives, the time was measured around the 20.6-kilometre lap.

“All four lap times of both drivers were below seven minutes and only tenths of a second apart. This proves not only the outstanding power of the GT3 RS, but also its extraordinary driveability at the limit. A perfectly composed overall system allows for highly dynamic performance even with a relatively modest engine power. For a driver, each of the car’s thousands of parts have to feel like one – that’s an unbeatable strength of the GT3 RS. And what especially delights me is how much fun Lars and Kévin (below) had when driving that car,” added Andreas Preuninger, Director GT Model Line.