The record for the fastest production car to go down the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta track was shattered by German carmaker Porsche who broke the previous best time not once, but twice in a row.
At an unspecified date, the Germans carmaker took two 911 GT RS cars to the track and handed them over to drivers David Donohue and Randy Pobst to have a go at beating the record.
It was the 911 GT2 RS driven by Pobst that managed to win the title of fastest production car ever to lap the 2.54-mile road course in Georgia, with a time of 1:24,88 minutes. The GT3 RS followed close behind with a time of 1:26.24 minutes.
The two Porsche cars managed thus to beat the 1:26.45 minutes set by a Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 in 2018. No major modifications were made to the two cars taking part in the record attempt, apart from fitting them with road-legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R N0 tires.
“It was an incredible experience. The traction coming out of a corner, the tireless brakes, the grip generated by the downforce and the tires, and of course the tremendous power made it possible,” said in a statement David Donohue, one of the two pilots.
The Porsche 911 GT2 RS uses a 3.8-liter biturbo boxer engine developing 700 hp that gives the car a zero to 100 km/h acceleration time of 2.8 seconds and a top speed of 340 km/h (211 mph).
The GT3 RS is somewhat less powerful, developing 520 hp from a 4.0-liter naturally aspirated engine. Performance figures stand at 3.2 seconds acceleration time and a top speed of 312 km/h (194 mph).
As a side note, the fastest time for any type of car to go down this track is held by Peugeot Sport’s LMP1 that lapped the course in 1:06.242 in 2008. The same year, a Suzuki GSX-R1000 set the fastest time for bikes, at 1:23.421.
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
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