The Porsche Taycan is no stranger to the record books, with the title for the world’s longest EV drift and fastest EV lap around the Nordschleife already under its belt. But in just a single day, the EV sportscar added 13 more to that list.
Porsche couldn’t have chosen a better location than the Brands Hatch circuit to set the records either, the same place where the 917 won the rain-soaked 1,000-kilometre race by an incredible five laps in 1970, and later in 1984 claimed the top six finishes in the same event.
In an attempt to emulate their successes here in the past, Porsche brought out two versions of its EV sports car – a Taycan Turbo S and a Taycan 4S, piloted by Le Mans legend Richard Attwood (who took a podium finish with the 917 in 1970), ex Formula One and Porsche racer Jonathan Palmer (who won the race in 1984), 2020 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Harry King, and 2020 Cayman Islands Porsche Sprint Challenge GB champion James Dorlin.
During their 1,000 km run around the circuit, which took a whopping 13 hours to complete (from 7 am to 8 pm), the two Porsche Taycan cars – both covered in specially-designed Salzburg tribute livery – racked up a remarkable 13 separate records, each one ratified by Motorsport UK in the category of ‘electric cars over 1,000 kilograms’.
- Porsche Taycan Turbo S
- time taken from a standing start to cover 200 km
- time taken from a standing start to cover 100 miles (160.9 km)
- time taken from a standing start to cover 200 miles (321.8 km)
- distance covered from a standing start in three hours – 252.356 km
- distance covered from a standing start in six hours – 450.065 km
- distance covered from a standing start in 12 hours – 915.762 km
- Porsche Taycan 4S
- time taken from a standing start to cover 50 km
- time taken from a standing start to cover 50 miles (80.5 km)
- time taken from a standing start to cover 100 km
- time taken from a standing start to cover 500 km
- time taken from a standing start to cover 500 miles (804.7 km)
- time taken from a standing start to cover 1000 km
- distance covered from a standing start in one hour – 98.192 km
As luck would have it, the record attempt – just like the 1970 race – was also met with intermittent rain and heavy showers, meaning that the track surface was always damp at best. The long hours also meant that a huge chunk of the 13 hours were in complete darkness, but fortunately the line-up of experienced drivers, each of whom completed two or three stints of around 90 minutes, proved up to the challenge.
Equally as impressive was the Porsche Taycan’s thermal management technology, which proved to be a valuable asset during the record attempt, especially when it came to recharging. Despite an ambient temperature of just eight degrees Celsius at Brands Hatch, and the heat generated by constant high-speed driving, the battery temperature was always within the optimal range for minimal power loss and efficient charging.
With the Porsche Taycan’s 270 kW charging capacity, the 93.4 kWh Performance Battery Plus was able to charge from 5-80% in just 22.5 minutes under ideal conditions, which helped minimise time spent in the pits. According to Porsche, the cars were each stopped in the pits for around three hours across six stops during their runs, each stop lasting around 30 minutes, with the cars charging from around 5-85% each time.
GALLERY
