Nowadays, by the time a Porsche fan hears the name of Lars Kern, he immediately thinks of another record. And that’s exactly the news that Porsche announced today. We are still trying to find out the exact date, but that’s of minor importance now. Porsche development driver Lars Kern has outdone himself at the Nürburgring. Kern lapped the legendary Nordschleife in a pre-series Porsche Taycan in a lap time of 7:07.55 minutes. The difference with his previous record drive is a whopping 26 seconds, a lap set with the Porsche Taycan Turbo S Sport sedan equipped with the performance package back in August 2022.
“Twenty-six seconds is half an eternity in motorsport. Lars’ lap time of 7:07.55 minutes on the Nordschleife is sensational, putting the Taycan in the same league as electric hypercars,” says head of the model line, Kevin Giek. “And the impressive thing about it is that over several laps, Lars clocked almost the same time.”
“I pushed as hard as I could, but that was all I could do,” says Kern. The Nürburgring-Nordschleife was at the exclusive disposal of the experienced racer for the day of fast laps. For safety reasons, the test car was equipped with the legally prescribed roll cage, along with racing bucket seats. Compared to the 2022 record in a Taycan Turbo S, the times were significantly better: the pre-series car was a good 25 km/h faster heading into the Schwedenkreuz.
To illustrate the difference further, by the time Kern crossed the finish line near Grandstand 13 (T13) this time, he would have only just been passing the entrance to the Nordschleife, about to enter the Antoniusbuche section, during his record drive in the Taycan Turbo S in 2022. This put the distance between the pre-series Taycan and the current Turbo S at more than 1.3 kilometers – a figure that illustrates the leap in performance achieved on the 20.8 km course in Germany’s Eifel region. Porsche announced in the press release that an onboard video of the complete lap will be published later this year. And we’re honest enough to admit we can’t wait to see the footage.
Edited Porsche Factory Press Release
Pictures courtesy Porsche AG
