Tesla took the electric production Nürburgring lap record, so what can Porsche do to take it back?

Last week Tesla made an official announcement stating its 1000+ horsepower electric sedan — the Model S Plaid — had broken the record for production electric speed at the Nürburgring. A totally stock Plaid had run an officially-substantiated time of 7:35.759 with Andreas Simonsen doing the tiller work. This is about 7 seconds quicker than Lars Kern had run in a preproduction Taycan Turbo sedan back in 2019, the previous record holder. So can Porsche take back its rightful place at the top of the time charts with its own electric monster?

There are a few ways Porsche can make headlines again by stomping all over Tesla’s time. For one thing, the Tesla’s time was set with a four-figure horsepower car, while Porsche was only 7 seconds slower with a Taycan Turbo, capped at just 670 horsepower on overboost. Consider for a moment that the Taycan Turbo S exists, which pushes that number to 750 horsepower, and you’re already well on your way to making up most of that lap time difference.

Watching both of the cars onboard laps of the ‘Ring, it’s clear that the Tesla had a little tire advantage with stickier rubber and a slight top-speed advantage with the Porsche topping out around 155 mph, a few shy of its 161 mph limiter, while the Tesla ran a top speed around 166. If Porsche ups the top speed of their Taycan, that should be at least a few seconds worth of speed along the Döttinger Höhe straight. There is more to it than just top speed, however, as the Tesla is around five seconds ahead of the Taycan by the time they exit the corner onto the Döttinger Höhe back straight. That’s where the extra power and extra grip come into play.

With the extra power of the Turbo S, there might be enough going on there to get the record back. If Porsche really wanted to go to the track knowing it had the record for years to come, however, it could really lay down the law by developing a factory-effort Taycan GT. With a more downforce-oriented aerokit, the power of the Turbo S, and the optional carbon ceramic brakes, a Taycan GT could totally walk all over the Plaid, even with a 270 horsepower deficit. There is also the option to offer a performance kit through Manthey Racing, as it has already done with the GT2 RS, which currently owns the outright production record at the very same track. Wouldn’t that be cool?