Porsche’s Manthey Taycan Turbo GT Just Obliterated Every EV Record at the Nürburgring

Porsche just proved that electric sedans don’t have to be boring by handing its most extreme Taycan variant to the mad scientists at Manthey Racing. The result? A 6:55.553 lap around the Nürburgring Nordschleife—a time that obliterates every production EV record, every sedan record, and frankly most of the hypercars people actually care about. This isn’t some one-off stunt car either. Manthey’s kit will be available as an option on the 2026 Taycan Turbo GT, turning Porsche’s already-unhinged electric performance sedan into something that makes a 918 Spyder look like a family hauler.

Let’s talk about the gap this thing just created. Lars Kern, Porsche’s development driver, improved his previous Taycan Turbo GT lap time by 12 full seconds when he bolted on the Manthey package. The Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, which held the previous sedan record at 7:04.957, got absolutely demolished. Even the Rimac Nevera hypercar—a $2.4 million monster with 1,914 horsepower—lost by 10 seconds. That’s not a marginal improvement. That’s a statement.

Triple the Downforce, Triple the Crazy

Manthey didn’t just bolt on a bigger wing and call it a day. The aerodynamic overhaul is genuinely extensive. The kit increases available downforce by more than 300 percent—from 209 pounds at 124 mph on the standard Weissach package to 683 pounds. Crank it all the way to the car’s 192-mph top speed, and you’re looking at 1,631 pounds of negative lift. That’s not a sedan anymore. That’s a mobile downforce generator that happens to have four doors.

Visually, the changes make zero apologies. Carbon-fiber fender flares, a one-piece front lip, wider side skirts, and revised front and rear diffusers give the Taycan Turbo GT the kind of track-ready aggression you’d expect from a factory race program. Those iconic Manthey-spec rear aerodisc wheels are there too, along with underbody air deflectors that further optimize airflow. This isn’t subtle. This isn’t a trim package that looks like a trim package. This is a car that walks into a room and everyone immediately understands it means business.

The Powertrain Gets a Serious Kick

Here’s where the Manthey Taycan becomes genuinely interesting compared to other Manthey kits: Porsche actually added power. That’s not standard practice for Manthey’s other performance packages, which typically nail aerodynamics and chassis tuning while leaving horsepower alone. The Taycan Turbo GT’s dual-motor setup now benefits from a maxed-out pulse inverter pushing 1,300 amps of current, up from the standard 1,100 amps.

The numbers: Standard mode climbs from 777 to 804 horsepower. Attack mode jumps from 938 to 978 horsepower. Launch Control stays locked at 1,019 horsepower, so you’re not gaining anything in that mode—the gains are in sustained performance where you actually need them. Torque increases by 22 pound-feet to 936 pound-feet in Launch Control, and similar gains carry through the other modes. It’s not a massive power bump, but combined with that enormous downforce increase and the suspension retuning, it’s enough to explain how Kern found 12 seconds on a track as unforgiving as the Nordschleife.

The suspension and steering systems have been completely reworked too. Porsche retuned the Active Ride setup, adjusted all-wheel-drive behavior, and refined the steering calibration to handle the massive increase in available grip. The brake package got upgraded rotors and pads to handle the extra thermal demands. Manthey also offers a set of forged 21-inch wheels that are lighter than the standard rubber and wider across all four corners, paired with either street-legal Pirelli P-Zero Trofeo RS track tires or road-focused alternatives.

What This Actually Means for Porsche’s EV Future

This record lap is doing something important that gets lost in the headlines. It proves that electric platforms aren’t inherently limited to some predetermined performance ceiling. The Taycan Turbo GT, even in its base Weissach form, was already absurdly quick. But Manthey’s intervention—real engineering work on aerodynamics, chassis dynamics, power delivery, and brake systems—unlocked even more performance. That’s a blueprint.

It also quietly demonstrates that Porsche’s commitment to performance over comfort actually means something. The company could have killed the Taycan platform years ago when the EV transition started. Instead, they kept developing it, kept iterating, and now they’ve got a production sedan that outhandles hypercars with a tenth of the development budget. That’s not marketing speak. That’s engineering.

Porsche hasn’t announced pricing yet, but expect to pay a premium over the Weissach package. The standard 2026 Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach starts at $245,950, so the Manthey kit will almost certainly push this into the $280,000–$320,000 range. Whether that sounds reasonable depends on how badly you want a production EV that laps the Nürburgring faster than a 918 Spyder. For most people, it shouldn’t sound reasonable at all. For the obsessives? This is Porsche finally delivering exactly what they’ve been asking for.

Sources: Car and Driver · Road & Track