In brief: With Porsche's first EV public reveal just around the corner, the automaker took a pre-series prototype to the Nurburgring Nordschleife racetrack in Germany and blitzed it with a time of 7 minutes and 42 seconds, setting a speed record and some bragging rights, for the soon to be unveiled four-door sports car.
Often referred to as the "Mecca of Motorsports," the 12.9 mile (~20.7 km) Nurburgring racetrack in Germany is where automakers from all over the world come to fine tune and set lap times for their cars. It's a constant effort of one-upping each other in different vehicle categories and off the track, it makes for a good gossip among petrol heads where if your car model has been officially tested on this track, you've got a head start for the evening.
Porsche is also well known for extensively testing its cars on the Nurburgring. From a big chunky SUV like the Cayenne to the sublime Cayman GT4 or the fastest rear-drive production car—the 911 GT2 RS—its latest model to set a name for itself, in the EV category, is the upcoming four-door Taycan (which means a lively young horse).
Recently, we saw the car's interior and the generous amount of touchscreens it had and now, being a Porsche, we know of its speed and handling prowess. "The Taycan is also suitable for race tracks and it convincingly proved that here on the world’s most challenging circuit," said Lars Kern, the test driver of the pre-series prototype who was also impressed by the car's stability in high-speed sections and its acceleration in narrow ones.
This feat is part of Porsche's Triple Endurance Run that's meant to show how its EV technology can sustain prolonged sessions of use and abuse. "First, our electric sports car demonstrated the reproducibility of its performance as part of a strenuous test involving 26 successive acceleration runs from zero to 200 km/h. Then it completed 3,425 kilometres within 24 hours in Nardò without any issues and now the record at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife," said Stefan Weckbach, VP of Taycan's Product Line.
Although the lap time in itself isn't the fastest for an EV - Porsche's parent company VW, had its I.D. R electric racecar lapping the track about a minute and 37 seconds faster while Porsche's own 919 Hybrid EVO went around more than two minutes quicker - it's still very impressive for a car that's not purpose built nor has a limited production run and comes with all the luxury and safety of a four-door saloon.
We'll find out more about the $90,000 Taycan at its full detailed public unveiling next week.
https://www.techspot.com/news/81619-porsche-taycan-becomes-fastest-four-door-ev-lap.html
