PORSCHE RESETS THE RECORD LAP TIME AT THE NÃœRBURGRING

As long as we are reporting record breaking times, here’s one from Germany.

Running a 5:19.55 around the famous 12.94-mile Nordschleife (aka Green Hell), a modified Porsche 919 Evo driven by Timo Bernhard just smashed the previous record time of 6:11.13 set by Stefan Bellof in a Porsche 956 back in 1983. That’s an average speed of 145 mph and 51.58 seconds faster than Bellof’s seemingly unbeatable lap made 35 years ago…

From Road & Track: “Its turbocharged V4 combustion engine has been cranked to produce 720 hp, while an electric motor at the front axle makes 440 hp. With Bernhard on board, the 919 Evo weighs just 1957 lbs, and it makes far more downforce than the version of this car that competed in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) last year. It even makes more downforce than a modern F1 car. WEC regulations prevent the use of active aerodynamics, too, but the 919 Evo has a drag-reduction system, which allow it to hit nearly 230 mph on the final straight on the ‘Ring, while still making loads of downforce everywhere else.”

“Dubbing it the 919 Hybrid Evo, the car is solely built to break records, and in its first debut, it did just that. With factory driver Neel Jani behind the wheel, the 919 Evo ran a 1:41.7 around Spa Francorchamps, breaking Lewis Hamilton’s Formula One 1:42.553 lap record from last year by almost a second.”

(Photos: Courtesy Porsche AG)