A 2019 Porsche Just Humbled Chevy’s Newest Corvette ZR1 at Road Atlanta

Seven years old, turbocharged, and somehow still faster than a brand-new American supercar with over 1,000 horses. That’s the story of Porsche‘s 911 GT2 RS Manthey, which just reclaimed the production-car lap record at Road Atlanta from Chevy‘s freshly minted Corvette ZR1, lapping the Georgia circuit in a blistering 1:22.649 versus the Corvette’s 1:22.82. The margin is thin, but the message is loud: age is just a number when you’re a Porsche.

The GT2 RS Refuses to Retire

The 2019 911 GT2 RS Manthey didn’t just barely squeak past the ZR1—it did so while wearing road-legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires, which means this wasn’t a laboratory conditions scenario. This particular Porsche still holds the title of the fastest production 911 ever built, and the numbers prove it. At the Nürburgring, the same car ranks as the third-fastest production vehicle on record, trailing only the Mercedes-AMG One and the Ford Mustang GTD Competition.

Porsche’s dominance at Road Atlanta isn’t new. The brand has spent the better part of a decade establishing benchmarks there, most recently in 2024 when engineers ran the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid and Cayenne Turbo GT through their paces. But the GT2 RS Manthey’s resurface with a production-car record feels different—it’s not just confirming Porsche’s engineering prowess, it’s a reality check on what a properly engineered turbocharged platform can still accomplish in 2025, even when it’s technically last-generation hardware.

Chevy’s ZR1 Gets Humbled (But Only Slightly)

Let’s give credit where it’s due: the Corvette ZR1 is legitimately impressive. With 1,064 horsepower and a newly revised architecture, it launched last year with fanfare and has proven itself a serious contender on road courses. A near-miss to a seven-year-old Porsche is nothing to be embarrassed about—the gap of 0.171 seconds over a lap that likely takes around 90 seconds is genuinely close racing. The ZR1 is quick, period.

But there’s a caveat: the GT2 RS achieves this with forced induction and a proven, refined platform, while the ZR1 represents Chevy’s current bleeding edge. That this particular Porsche still wins suggests either that Porsche’s tuning shop (Manthey) is operating on another level entirely, or that the ZR1—for all its power—still has room to grow on a technical circuit. Likely, it’s both.

The Naturally-Aspirated Crown Goes to GT3 RS

Not content with one record, Porsche also brought a 2025 911 GT3 RS Manthey to Road Atlanta and set a naturally-aspirated production-car record of 1:23.932. To put that in perspective, the previous-generation GT3 RS needed 1:26.24—a three-second improvement that showcases how aggressive the new 992.2 generation has become in aerodynamic and chassis refinement.

The new GT3 RS’s track package is genuinely wild: massive fixed wings, an active rear wing, and underbody downforce that would make a Le Mans prototype jealous. The fact that it’s still classified as a road-legal production car says something about how far homologation rules have loosened. Trailing just behind, the non-RS 992.2 GT3 Manthey clocked a 1:24.639—still quicker than most hypercars most owners will ever see.

What This Means for the Supercar Wars

The gap between the GT2 RS and ZR1 raises an interesting question: how much of a production-car lap record comes down to driver skill, tire selection, and mechanical setup versus raw horsepower? The Corvette has a 247-hp advantage, but the Porsche has nearly a decade of tuning experience and a proven platform. Car and Driver and other publications have extensively tested both vehicles, and the consensus is that driver confidence, brake modulation, and mid-corner stability matter as much as peak output on a technical circuit like Road Atlanta.

Here’s the original angle RevFeed wants to highlight: the 911 GT2 RS Manthey’s dominance isn’t surprising if you understand Porsche’s philosophy. The company doesn’t chase peak horsepower—it chases efficiency of effort. A turbocharged flat-six making 700 hp, paired with a dual-clutch transmission and decades of 911 track tuning, can outpoint a naturally-aspirated V8 with 50% more power. That’s not luck. That’s engineering.

The Manthey Effect

Manthey, Porsche’s in-house performance division, deserves its own paragraph here. This isn’t just bolt-on parts—the Manthey Kit includes aero refinements, suspension geometry changes, and calibration tweaks that transform already-excellent Porsches into track weapons. The fact that a 2019 model year car equipped with these upgrades still beats a current-year supercar is a testament to how comprehensively thought-out the package is. When you spec a Porsche with the Manthey treatment, you’re not just buying go-faster parts; you’re getting a rolling laboratory of optimization.

The Corvette ZR1 will likely find its revenge eventually—there’s always a faster lap lurking around the corner. But for now, Porsche can claim the trophy at Road Atlanta, and the 911 GT2 RS can keep its place in the history books as a car that refuses to fade into irrelevance. That’s the kind of engineering legacy that money and cubic inches alone can’t buy.

Sources: Carscoops