Porsche was able to set a new lap record with the 991.2 GT3 RS at the Nurburgring with the kind help of the GM development team that had booked the track for testing the Corvette ZR1.
Apparently Porsche had forgot to book the track in advance so instead, they just showed up there that morning, only to find out that the Corvette team had booked the Nurburgring for the whole day.
“We went there, pretty much the first to arrive at the track, with an official and two stop watches,” Oliver Berg, Porsche GT product manager, told Motormouth.
“Most of the engineers here know each other,” said Berg, “Because they’re always testing at the Nürburgring, and there is real camaraderie between them, a nice atmosphere.”
The Corvette team gave the Weissach boys an hour of their track time in order to attempt a new lap record with the 991.2 GT3 RS. As it turned out, Porsche didn’t need an hour to start posting lap times in the sixes.
“When we started the first lap everybody had their mobile phones out,” said Berg. “Before, when we ran in traffic on a busy day we were in the low sevens, so we thought we could reach the sixes. But then the first lap was – Baam! – six-fifty-nine…”
“The first thing my boss said was ‘Oh we can stop now, we’ve achieved our goal.’” said Berg. “And the Corvette guys were just standing there with their mouths on the floor. They didn’t expect us to do that on the first lap.
“Then, second stint – Baam! – fifty-nine, third stint – Baam! – fifty-nine…”
“Fourth stint – and baam! – fifty six… They’ve been there all week, and we didn’t even need the hour – we left after half an hour. And the Corvette guys are still ‘Huh?’, speechless… But really nice guys.”
You can revisit Kevin Estre’s incredible 6:56.4 lap time with the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS on the video linked below.