Porsche Taycan sets new lap record
First electric Porsche slams down EV lap record at The Bend in hands of our own Luke YouldenWe know how quick the Porsche Taycan Turbo S is, because the 560kW all-wheel drive electric sedan has repeatedly nailed the benchmark 0-100km/h sprint in just 2.5 seconds during our own testing.
We also know how well Porsche’s first electric vehicle can drift, since it completed the world’s longest EV drift by covering almost 43km in 55 minutes at the Porsche Experience Centre in Hockenheim last November.
But now know how fast the Porsche Taycan is around a racetrack – and not just any racetrack but the world’s second-longest permanent circuit after the famous Nurburging Nordschleife, right here in Australia.
Indeed the Porsche Taycan Turbo S is now officially the fastest EV to lap the challenging 7.7km GT configuration of The Bend racetrack in South Australia.
Our man Luke Youlden set the new EV lap record with a time of 3:30.344, the carsales road tester digging deep to deliver the impressive time around the demanding 35-corner GT loop.
By way of comparison, the new Porsche 911 Turbo also set a lap record for The Bend’s GT circuit – also in the hands of Youlden – and its time of 3:22.066 was just over eight seconds quicker than the four-door EV’s.
The new benchmark lap time for an EV was set not long after we reviewed the Porsche Taycan Turbo S at the same racetrack – although our lap times were a bit more sedate.
The former Bathurst 1000 winner and regular carsales contributor said the electric Porsche can be driven “…in a similar way to any other Porsche sports car” and added that the handling and acceleration of the 560kW/1050Nm EV were “outstanding”.
“The power out of the corners is definitely where it makes up a lot of time,” noted Youlden, who also holds the outright Bathurst lap record of 1:58.67, which was set in February 2019 behind the wheel of the Australian-built Brabham BT62 supercar.
“The lap time of the Taycan just absolutely blew me away,” he said of the silent 2.3-tonne scorcher.
The Porsche Taycan currently comes in three flavours: 4S, Turbo and Turbo S, priced at $190,400, $268,500 and $338,500 respectively, plus on-road costs.
The Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo electric crossover wagon will be available in Australia from around September priced at $201,000 for the 4S and $271,200 for the Turbo model.
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