Porsche and the Nurburgring Nordschleife – name a better duo. Almost every new Porsche is a Nurburgring lap record holder, and now, it’s the all-new Panamera’s turn to show off its Green Hell prowess. And show off it did – because the third-generation Porsche Panamera – in a yet unreleased and unnamed range-topping variant – blitz the Ring in just 7:24.17 minutes, landing it a new lap record in the Combustion and Hybrid Vehicles Executive Cars category.
The time, set by the legendary Porsche test driver and multiple Nurburgring lap record holder Lars Kern, is more than five seconds quicker than the previous-generation Panamera Turbo S, and more than three seconds quicker than the Mercedes-AMG GT63 S 4Matic+, the previous lap record holder.
Porsche is still keeping mum on the exact specifications of the car that was used for the record attempt, only mentioning that it’s a pre-production variant of the “future top model of the Panamera series”. At launch, the luxury fastback sedan was only offered up to the Turbo E-Hybrid grade, which means this is most likely the soon-to-be-unveiled Turbo S variant, with even more firepower than the 680 hp and 930 Nm offered on the lesser Turbo.
While the all-new Porsche Panamera’s hybrid powertrain certainly helped with the lap time, that wasn’t the most important factor for the incredible performance. According to Kern, it’s all down to its suspension – more specifically, the Active Ride dual-chamber air suspension system.
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“On the Nordschleife, the transverse dynamic capabilities of a car are particularly important,” Kern comments. “The new Panamera has made significant gains in this area. In technically demanding corner sequences in particular, such as between the ‘Hohe Acht’ and ‘Brünnchen’ sections of the track section, it responds with noticeably greater agility.”
As with all official timed runs, the cars used for the attempts have to remain nearly completely stock, with the only modifications allowed being the safety gear needed to protect the driver – a roll cage and racing seat in this instance. Otherwise, everything on the car here will be something that you can find in a showroom, including the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, and the optional Carbon Aerokit.
Now that even a four-seater sedan is nearly as quick as the balls-to-the-walls all-out-performance BMW M4 CSL, what’s next? The Cayenne beating out proper sports cars? Oh wait, that’s already happened…
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