Porsche has kicked off the year on a boastful note with news that a forthcoming Taycan model has lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7m 70.55s.

While Porsche points out that this is a significant 26 seconds faster than the time achieved by the Taycan Turbo S Sport, with the same development driver Lars Kern behind the wheel in 2022, it also happens to be 28 seconds quicker than the Tesla Model S Plaid.

While this theoretically makes it the fastest four-door to ever lap Germany’s famous “Green Hell”, it’s not quite the quickest electric car of all time, with that honour going to the Rimac Nevera, which managed 7m 05.298s in August last year.

Still, for a luxurious four-door to come within two seconds of a 1,408kW hypercar is a mighty impressive achievement.

But what is this mystery model that lapped the ‘Ring with partial camouflage and a huge rear wing?

While it goes without saying that this is a new flagship version of the electric sedan, many believe it will be called the Taycan Turbo GT, and some rumours are pointing to an output of around 1000 horsepower, which would be 745kW in metric speak.

For the sake of comparison the current Taycan Turbo S produces 560kW and it is already mind-blowingly fast as we experienced on its local launch back in 2020.

Taycan product boss Kevin Giek said the new model clocked almost exactly the same record time over several laps.

“I pushed as hard as I could, but that was really all I could do,” test driver Kern said after the feat.

For safety reasons the car was equipped with the legally prescribed roll cage as well as racing bucket seats, Porsche said.

IOL Motoring