Modified Porsche sets EV Nürburgring record

Porsche just did something sneaky and important with the Taycan. It did not unveil a brand-new car. It took the Taycan Turbo GT with the Weissach Package, added a Manthey Kit, and sent it around the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 6:55.533. That run, set by development driver Lars Kern on May 7, is now the record for electric executive cars on the 20.832-km layout. ### What actually set the time? The car was a Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach Package fitted with the new Manthey Kit. That matters because this was not some one-off tuner science project. Manthey is Porsche’s longtime track-performance partner, and Porsche says the kit will be offered from June as a retrofit for Taycan Turbo GT Weissach cars. In other words, this is modified, but it is modified in a factory-adjacent, customer-buyable way. (newsroom.porsche.com) ### How fast was the lap? Very fast in a way that changes the conversation. The official time was 6:55.533, which put the car more than 9 seconds ahead of the previous record holder in the luxury or executive EV class. Motor1 notes the margin at roughly 9 seconds, which is huge on a track where tenths usually get the headlines. (newsroom.porsche.com) ### What did Manthey change? Basically everything that helps on a track. Porsche says the kit adds changes to the wheel-and-tire package, aerodynamics, chassis setup, and software tuning for power delivery. Carscoops says downforce is dramatically higher, while Motor1 says Attack Mode output rises to 979 hp. So this was not a cosmetic body kit — it was a full grip, stability, and deployment package built to survive a hard lap. (nuerburgring.de) ### Why is the Nürburgring the big deal? Because the Nordschleife is where carmakers go when they want a lap time to mean something. It is long, bumpy, high-speed, and brutally exposes weak cooling, weak brakes, and nervous chassis tuning. One quick quarter-mile pass can flatter an EV. A sub-7-minute Nürburgring lap says the whole system works — battery, thermal management, aero, tires, suspension, and software. (newsroom.porsche.com) ### Didn’t Porsche already have a Taycan record? Yes — and that is part of why this is interesting. The standard Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach Package had already set a 7:07.55 Nordschleife time and Porsche framed that earlier run as the best time for a production electric car and the fastest four-door there regardless of powertrain. This new Manthey-equipped run chops another 12 seconds off that already wild benchmark. (nuerburgring.de) ### So is this still a “production” record? That is the catch. It is a class record for an electric executive car with a retrofit track kit, not a pure showroom-stock bragging right in the old sense. But that distinction is exactly why the story matters. Porsche is testing a new lane where EV performance is no longer just factory spec versus factory spec — it is platform plus sanctioned upgrade package. (nuerburgring.de) ### Why does that matter beyond Porsche fans? Because the EV arms race is getting more modular. Xiaomi, Tesla, and Porsche have all turned Nürburgring times into status weapons, but Porsche is now saying the next step is not only building the fastest EV — it is selling the upgrade path too. That could pull EV tuning closer to the old GT-car world, where aero, damping, and tire strategy matter as much as raw power. (newsroom.porsche.com) ### Bottom line? This was not just a fast lap. It was Porsche showing that EV performance is moving past stock-versus-stock into a new phase — factory-backed modification packages that turn already absurd cars into track specialists. If that idea sticks, the hottest EV record fights may come from upgrade catalogs, not clean-sheet launches. (carscoops.com)