Porsche's Bodacious Taycan Nabs 4-Door EV Nürburgring Lap Record With Sub 8-Min Run
To show that the Taycan is capable of duking it out with premier gasoline-powered vehicles, Porsche has just released a video of the vehicle tearing its way around the famed Nürburgring-Nordschleife circuit. Auto manufacturers often take their latest performance vehicle to the Nürburgring to see how fast they can complete a lap in the ultimate showcase of who has the biggest...well, you know…
In the case of the Taycan, it completed the 20.6-kilometer course in 7:42, which is a new record for a 4-door EV. For example, a Tesla Model 3 Performance can do the deed in around 9 minutes. To put the Taycan's lap time in perspective, here's a list of other "conventional" vehicles that also complete a lap in 7 minutes and 42 seconds:
- Porsche Cayman GT4 (981)
- Porsche 911 GT3 (997)
- Lamborghini Murciélago LP670-4 SuperVeloce
- Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (C6)
What's impressive about the Taycan's performance is that the similarly sized Tesla Model S can complete a lap in about 10 minutes. The Taycan is rumored to have in excess of 600 horsepower, while the Tesla Model S has a claimed 762 horsepower. Despite the Model S's ability to rip sub-3-second 0-60 times in rapid succession, the vehicle has to throttle performance to keep the battery from cooking itself when running balls-out for long periods of time -- hence the extended Nürburgring lap times.
The Taycan might be Porsche's first production EV, but the company is clearly leaning on decades of experience in endurance racing to ensure that the its vehicle can extract as much power from its battery pack for extended period of time without imploding.
Porsche is set to officially unveil the Taycan at the Frankfurt Auto Show on September 4th. The company has already given us a full look at the interior, and we have a general idea of what the final production vehicle will look like thanks to thinly disguised prototypes that have been making the rounds. The Taycan will be priced from $92,500 when it launches in the United States.
