A few months ago, Porsche initiated a recall campaign for the Carrera GT, developing new titanium suspension components and offering a set of newly developed Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires free of charge to all owners.
Sport Auto recently got their hands on one of these yellow Carrera GTs fitted with these tires and set out to break a lap record at the Nurburgring.
With Porsche factory driver Jörg Bergmeister behind the wheel, the Carrera GT completed the 20.6-km Nordschleife loop in 7:12.69. To put this into perspective, this is 16 seconds faster than the previous best lap time set by a Carrera GT at this track back in 2004, driven by the legendary Walter Rohrl.
Equally impressive is the fact that it is only 15 seconds slower than the Porsche 918 Spyder, the first production car to achieve the sub-7-minute mythic mark.
Despite being over 20 years old, the Carrera GT still exhibits remarkable stability on the track. The new Michelin tires provided excellent grip, and Bergmeister was able to professionally minimize understeer and oversteer throughout the lap.
The Carrera GT also lacks the aggressive aerodynamic aids of most modern supercars, sends power only to the rear wheels, and was offered exclusively with a six-speed manual gearbox. As it charged down the main straight of the track, the Carrera GT hit a top speed of 302 km/h.
Tire technology has come a long way since the Carrera GT first hit the market, and it’s noteworthy that it’s been 11 years since the 918 Spyder set the ‘Ring’ record. Had it been fitted with the latest tires, it might have gone much faster than 6:57. Nonetheless, it’s impressive that the Carrera GT isn’t far off the pace of its much more powerful and advanced successor.
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