Seven minutes and 32 seconds. Way back in 2004 Horst Von Saurma tested the then-new Porsche Carrera GT on the Nürburgring Nordschleife for Germany’s Sport Auto magazine, and that was the time he set in its original form. This week the magazine was back at it again with the same car twenty years on, but this time fitted with Porsche’s new Carrera GT–specific, much stickier Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tire. Porsche pro driver Jörg Bergmeister set a lap with an old Porsche Carrera GT on new rubber, and it was an astonishing seven minutes and 12 seconds!
It has always been known that modern rubber is much better than it was even a decade ago, but now we can finally quantify the difference. For every year of tire development Michelin has gained one second worth of time on the Nürburgring.
The full story won’t be available until the next issue of the magazine reaches news stands next month, but for now you can drop into the passenger seat with Herr Bergmeister and see what a lap of the ‘Ring in a Carrera GT on brand new tires looks like. More importantly, you can hear what it sounds like. My god, that 5.7-liter V10 still sounds like absolute heaven. There is certainly no way any of us mere mortals could touch a lap time competitive with the five-time IMSA champion, but damn I’d sure love to try.
My personal favorite part of the video is when Bergmeister appears to scrape the front end of the $2M vintage all-analog supercar car across the curbs at the end of the Döttinger Höhe straight. That’s gotta hurt.
Of course there are tons of variables here, including the driver, the condition of the track, the weather, and the upkeep of the car in question, but to run a full 20 seconds quicker around this track twenty years later, those must be some pretty special tires. Especially as all Carrera GTs were considered “undriveable paperweights” just a few months ago.
