Video: Porsche claims new Nurburgring Nordschleife lap record with 919 Tribute

World Endurance Championship

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Porsche claims to have beaten the previous lap record for the Nurburgring Nordschleife by over 50 seconds with its 919 Hybrid.

The team posted a video on social media today indicating Timo Bernhard lapped the circuit this morning in 5’19.546. That is 51.584 seconds faster than the previous, 35-year-old lap record.

Stefan Bellof set the previous record of 6’11.13 at the wheel of a Porsche 956 in 1983 during the final World Endurance Championship round on the 20-kilometre track.

“This is a great moment for me and for the entire team – the 919 programme’s icing on the cake,” said Bernhard.

“The Evo was perfectly prepared and I have done my best on this lap. Thanks to the aerodynamic downforce, at sections I never imagined, you can stay on full throttle.”

Bernhard has extensive experience of the circuit and has won the Nurburgirng 24 Hours on five occasions, all with Porsche. “I’m pretty familiar with the Nordschleife but today I got to learn it in a new way,” he said.

The 919 Tribute is based on Porsche’s World Endurance Championship and Le Mans 24 Hours-winning 919 hybrid LMP1 car. As it is no longer running to the WEC’s restrictions it is allowed to produce maximum power from its V4 engine and hybrid systems, which produce 720bhp and 440bhp respectively.

The car also has uprated aerodynamics including adjustable elements to increase downforce in the corners and reduce drag on the straights. The car’s weight has also been trimmed for its lap record-breaking run.

Porsche said it does not intend to attempt any more record-breaking runs with the car. However they will take it to demonstration runs at the VW Fun Cup at Spa, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Festival of Porsche at Brands Hatch and Porsche Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca in California.

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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35 comments on “Video: Porsche claims new Nurburgring Nordschleife lap record with 919 Tribute”

  1. Man that only shows how much performance limitation the categories have. If there was like an F0 where you could just field whatever you wanted with size limitations, it would be amazing.

    1. …ly frivolous, expensive and unsustainable

      1. sounds great

    2. There was such a thing, Can-Am. Sadly long gone.

    3. @eljueta, People sometimes fantasise about such things, but usually what tended to happen when you had series that moved in that direction is that they collapsed pretty quickly because costs became unsustainable, they tended to be dominated by a single wealthy manufacturer and most of the rivals were either bankrupted or just withdrew rather than waste money.

      1. …and people inevitably died.

  2. Pikes Peak, and now The Ring. What a week for lap records.

    I reckon the Spa record will go back to F1 this season, but it will take some time before someone beats this record. If we see an F1 car at the Nurburgring it will be for promotional runs only unfortunately.

    Toyota and Audi should take the restrictions off their car and try to beat it. That would be cool.

    1. Pikes Peak, and now The Ring. What a week for Volkswagen AG

    2. Am I the only one who would have loved to see the 919 at Pike’s Peek? Just to, you know, see it.

      1. *Peak*. Sorry. My primary-school English teacher, Mr. Marborg, would have raised his famous eyebrows at me here…

  3. Wow, a 5:20, impressive. I hope they release the onboard of the lap, it must be mega!

    1. The link to the video is part of Keith’s article. Incredible. Interesting to note he avoids the bottom lane, concrete surface in the first carrousel.

  4. Out of curiosity, how would this claim be verified officially?

    1. It isn’t – because it is taking place outside of a race event, the lap time has no official status and therefore there is no verification of that lap time. They can be as fast as they like around the circuit, but Bellof’s lap time will still remain the official lap record as that was set during an official race event – the 1000 km of Nürburgring sportscar race in 1983 – whilst the time set by the 919, being set as a publicity stunt, will always be classified as an unofficial record by a non legal car.

      There’s even an argument that quoting Bellof’s qualifying time of 6m11.13s as the circuit record is wrong. Since only race lap times can be classified as a circuit record, technically it should be the 6m25.91s lap time that Bellof set in the race itself that is the official lap record.

      In fact, to be honest quite a few “lap records” around the Nurburgring are pretty questionable, particularly those supposedly set by production cars (particularly since there is no official definition of what a production car actually is, or even what the starting and finishing positions on the circuit are).

      1. I second the request @phylyp made elsewhere, @anon. You have to register an account! Your comments are too good to be anonymous!

        1. That settles it, anon. You may not pay heed to my request, that’s totally fine, but when Alonso asks you to…

          @alonshow

          1. Exactly, you wouldn’t dare arguing with Alonso, would you? XDD

  5. 369kph. Not too shabby. I wanted to see a g-force display too though!

    1. @picasso-19d-ftw And changing gear UP at 305 kph, not shabby at all.

      1. haha, I didn’t spot that! Wow.

  6. I wonder if they did that in a public session :-D I can imagine some local hero thinking he’s on a hot lap and then – WHOOSH! :-)))

    1. The local heros in VW UPs and MK2 Golfs have a good time already overtaking Porsches and Ferraris.

  7. Donald F. Draper
    29th June 2018, 13:11

    Made up for the all the time lost on the back, uphill straight with that huge boost onto the main straight. Seemed like child’s play to reach 369km/h. I drive this track every day digitally with various cars and the amount of grip/traction of this car is amazing to see. The confidence, even with wheel-spin, on ‘the back 9’ is truly astonishing.

  8. Staggering, just staggering. Its hard to contemplate something going that fast around corners. 229mph on the straits is nothing to sneeze at either, but those cornering speeds just get me.

    1. Just shy of 100 km/h round the Carousel and not even using the banking was equally impressive!

  9. That was the most amazing onboard that I’ve seen in a while- WOW!

  10. Man… Just watching it is exhausting…

    That thing just takes off. I have to be honest tho, I got the same feeling watching the Toyota during the night stint at Le Mans. But the close confines of this track makes it look even more impressive.

    Outstanding, really. These LMP1 cars are amazing. The way it accelerates it’s just mind-blowing. When he hit that boost before the straight, man alive!

    1. Just thinking about it, I did some laps at the nurburgring in 2014. I probably spent 15 minutes going round in a Suzuki Swift. I didn’t have a stopwatch but it’s probably what it took. That thing would lap me 3 times while I was going at it… And I was going at full beans!

      1. Amazing isn’t it. I really like how Porsche took the oppertunity with the car they had built anyway to get at least a bit of fun and PR out of it while winding the team down.

        THis kind of thing is exactly what makes the hearts of motorsport fans beat a bit faster.

  11. This lap is just….. out there. It looks fast. It is fast. F1- how can you capture this insanity? My mind is blown.

  12. Sod Tesla’s with their Ludicrous Speed – the sensation you can seen in Bernhard’s head when the hybrid is delivering its full boost under acceleration is just epic.

    They just need to put the Toyota and last Audi around the same circuit (to the same ‘maxed’ spec) so we can actually see which was the genuine fastest model. Somehow I doubt it would be the Audi…

  13. That’s awesome. And just for the record, Keith the average lap speed was 144 mph (232 km/h) around the Nordschleife… awesome.

  14. Hmmm.

    Still 16 seconds off Jimmy Broadbent’s time.

    I think Timo needs to try harder.

  15. This is like watching creation at work. It gives new faith in humanity.

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