Manual Porsche 911 GT3 sets new Nurburgring record
Latest extreme six-speed 911 robs record for fastest manual transmission production car around the 'Ring from the Dodge Viper ACRThe 2025 Porsche 911 GT3 has set a new fastest lap record at the Nurburgring, with a GT3 kitted with a manual six-speed transmission smashing the previous record by nearly 10 seconds.
In charge of the driving duties was ex-Porsche racer Jörg Bergmeister who set the new lap record in the latest 992.2 series Porsche 911 GT3, posting a 6min 56.294 second lap.
That remarkable time is 3.6 seconds quicker than the pre-facelift 911 GT3 (992.1 series) with the PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission and significantly faster than the V10-powered Dodge Viper ACR that held the previous record of 7min 1.3sec achieved in 2017.
According to Porsche, the eight-year-old Viper ACR manual transmission lap record was set on the shorter 20.6km version of the track, rather than the 20.832km modern circuit 911 GT3 drive.
The German sports car-maker says if recreated on the longer lap, the old time would correspond to a 7.05.8 minutes lap - hence why the new 911 GT3 is claimed to be an incredible 9.5 seconds faster.
More remarkable is the fact the Viper ACR was powered by a 481kW 8.4-litre V10, compared to the 375kW 4.0-litre flat-six-cylinder engine the hard-core Porsche 911 makes do with.
Porsche said, for the record, the 911 GT3 was completely standard, save for the fitting of the pricy $37,960 Weissach pack that shaves around 12kg off the kerb weight thanks to the use of a lightweight carbon-fibre front bonnet, roof, rear wing with side plates, mirror caps and a pair of blades in the front bumper made of the same lightweight composite.
Other kilo cutting comes from lighter door cards, a carbon console around the gear lever, plus anti-roll bars and rear axle connecting rods, as well as a rear sheer panel that are all made of the lightweight composite.
Finally, the record-breaking GT3 was shod with a set of stickier Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 R tyres.
The reason for the new manual transmission record, instead of Porsche going ahead and finding out just how fast the quicker-still PDK-equipped 992.2 911 GT3 would lap the Ring is because customers were asking for it.
"More and more 911 GT3 customers are opting for the six-speed manual transmission. And more and more often we are asked by these customers how fast a 911 GT3 with manual transmission would be on the Nordschleife.
"We have now answered this question and,?although we know that the variant with PDK is significantly faster,?we drove our official lap time with a manual six-speed gearbox," said Andreas Preuninger, Porsche's GT Model Line boss.
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