GT2 RS would be a Nurburgring lap hero, if Porsche decides to try it on

Stopping short of suggesting there was anything suspicious about the Huracan Performante’s recent record Nurburgring lap time, Porsche Vice President of Motorsport, Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser, says Porsche would attack a record lap slightly differently to its upstart Italian stablemate.

If Porsche were to take the GT2 RS to the ‘ring at all, that is…

Speaking to Australian journalists at the launch of the new 911 GT2 RS, Dr Walliser refuted the idea that Nurburgring lap times had become inconsequential and little more than manufacturer chest beating.

“Humans have been competing for thousands of years,” he said. “Why should it stop?”

Above: Walliser (top), Rohl (bottom).

Rally legend Walter Rohrl told CarAdvice that now the production car has been released, energy can be spent dialling the fastest and most powerful 911 in even more, honing it for racetrack glory. “That’s the next step,” he said.

More than one high-ranking Porsche motorsport official seemed to indicate that the Huracan wasn’t quite a ‘showroom standard’ production car, and that’s where the difference between the two philosophies is most apparent.

“Let me say one thing on the Nordschleife,” Dr. Walliser said. “If we go to the Nurburgring, we use the tyres that we sell to the customers, we use the engine the customers will have in their car. It’s the Porsche way. I’m not going for lap times that the customer cannot achieve.”

Dr. Walliser went on to explain his comments aren’t a critique on how the competition does it, but rather that the approach he details is ‘the Porsche way’. If that take on the Porsche way leads to a more realistic experience for buyers, then it’s mission accomplished for the German marque.

For now, though, everyone at Porsche seems content to talk about the ability of the new GT2 RS in an everyday sense, reinforcing its ability as a road car. Dr. Walliser couldn’t resist the opportunity to remind us of what could happen.

“This is the seventh generation of the 911, it’s all about seven – 700 horsepower,” he said. “It’s no seven on the Nurburgring though.”

Game on?

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