The lap time war between the Porsche Taycan and Tesla Model S seemed to have cooled off for the time being with Tesla sending its Nurburgring-bound Model S back to the States, but Porsche seems to be reigniting the fire.
While not necessarily a grandiose statement saying that the Taycan could beat the Model S’s unofficial lap time, Taycan product manager Lukas Kramer, told CarsGuide that the Taycan could improve on it’s 7:42 minute lap time.
It is important to note that there are two versions of the Taycan, the Turbo and Turbo S. While both of them have the same base of 616 hp, their overboost numbers are different from one another. The regular Turbo only boosts up to 670 hp and 626 lb-ft. while the Turbo S boosts up to 750 hp and 774 lb-ft. of torque. Additionally with the Turbo S comes standard with ceramic brakes which allow for better braking performance in a curve dominant track like the Nurburgring.
The Taycan that set the lap time was a regular Turbo and not a Turbo S and so Kramer stated that:
“If you have all the performance equipment and torque, there’s probably some room left,”
Along with:
“We’re really happy with our [lap time] time. But [with the Turbo S] there would be some potential.”
Kramer also deflected the notion that Porsche purposely used the Turbo variant just so they could come back and brake their own record later. That particular model had just finished a 24-hour test drive and Porsche wanted to display the resilience of the vehicle.
“We used the same car on our own 24-hour test drive, and it was very important that the car could do both. Between the two events we just changed the tyres, we wanted the car to be in the same setup,”
I guess we will just have to wait for round 2, but it is very fun to see two competitors battle against each other and try to one-up each other with new innovations. Thanks to this little showdown we got to hear about Tesla’s upcoming Plaid powertrain and an unofficial lap time that was almost 20 seconds faster than the Taycan (though there were some hiccups with a Model S having to be towed off the track).
I’m looking forward to round two, what about you guys? Let us know down in the comments below.
Source: CarsGuide
