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John Mahoney2 Jul 2018
NEWS

WATCH: Porsche destroy all-time Nurburgring record

German car-maker smashes 1983 lap record with heavily modified Porsche 919 Evo Le Mans racer

Porsche has set a new outright lap record of the Nurburgring in a heavily modified Porsche 919 Evo Le Mans race car.

Driven by works Porsche driver Timo Bernhard, the hybrid 919 racer completed a lap of the fearsome Nordschleife in a staggering five minutes and 19.55sec – smashing Stefan Bellof's 1983 lap record of 6:11.13sec by almost a minute.

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Back then Bellof drove the Le Mans-winning Porsche 956 so, appropriately, for the 2018 record Bernhard set the new record in the 919 that won the world-famous French endurance race in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

For the Nurburgring challenge -- and its previous Spa lap record -- the 919 Evo was comprehensively overhauled to ensure it would set a record time over some of the most challenging 20km in the world.

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This including winding power up of the compact 2.0-litre turbocharged V4 from 368kW to a far more muscular 530kW.

If that wasn't enough, the on-board energy recovery system was raised from the FIA mandatory 6.37 megajoules to a mightier 8.49 megajoules. This, claims Porsche, allows the front-mounted electric motor to deliver 10 per cent more power – up from 294kW to 323kW.

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With more power and no limitations on aerodynamic, for the record attempt the 919 Evo wore a tailored big-aero package to boost downforce on the notoriously fast and bumpy circuit, with the Porsche LMP1 racer producing around 53 per cent more downforce than the race car.

Finally, it's thought the air-conditioning, windscreen wipers and on-board pneumatic air jacks were ditched to cut the kerb weight to around 849kg – 39kg less than the car in FIA race-compliant trim.

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Watch the video to see what an incredible feat it was for the 919 Evo to set the time.

Over the lap Bernhard manages to wrestle the Porsche racer to a top speed of almost 369km/h, recoding an average speed of 238km/h.

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