Porsche ready to defend its performance record against Tesla

Porsche makes the world’s most desirable sports cars, but now the German brand is facing stiff competition from an American upstart.

Ask Porsche people if they see Tesla as a rival for Nürburgring EV lap-record honours and the language gets fruity. “We love competition, that’s for sure. But we need apples-to-apples comparison, not apples-to-pears,” says Mayk Weinkötter, special spokesman for the company’s all-electric Taycan.

The Porsche Taycan is the brand’s first electric car.

In June this year a pre-production Taycan ran an officially timed 7 minutes 42 second lap of the 20.6km German track, though Porsche did not reveal the achievement until August.

Only a few days later Elon Musk was tweeting. “Model S on Nürburgring next week,” promised the Tesla founder in early September. By mid-month a German magazine was reporting a Model S sedan unofficially clocking laps around 20 seconds quicker than the Taycan.

Then it emerged that the Tesla wasn’t exactly standard. The Model S was equipped with three motors. The current production model has two. Named ‘Plaid’ — a reference to the 1980s sci-fi comedy Spaceballs — the high-performance drivetrain is a prototype. It is “about a year away from production” according to another Musk tweet.

Yes. To be clear, Plaid powertrain is about a year away from production & applies to S,X & Roadster, but not 3 or Y. Will cost more than our current offerings, but less than competitors.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 12, 2019

The record-breaking Porsche, in contrast, was exactly the same as a car offered for sale in Europe. “It’s a series-production car,” says Ingo Albers, Taycan chassis chief. Specifically, it was a Turbo model fitted with extra-cost items like PDCC sport chassis control system, 21-inch Pirelli tyres, rear-wheel steering and ceramic brakes.

The Taycan is due to arrive next year.

“It’s a fully optioned car,” he says. “Then we put a roll cage for safety into the car. We replace the normal three-point belt by a race belt. And we put a race driver with a helmet inside …”

Tesla is planning an even more performance focused driving mode.

Porsche’s Nürburgring aim was set a scorching time with a car available on the market. “That’s our main goal, and we will not do and try any attempt with, let’s say, a race car, a one-off race car,” insists Albers.

“If there is a really ambitious driver, a very experienced driver, as a customer we want him to be able to set a similar time.”

The record-lap Turbo isn’t even the quickest model in the Taycan line-up. The Turbo S has a more powerful front motor than the Turbo, though both models share an identical rear motor. The maximum combined motor outputs of the Turbo S are 560kW and 1050Nm. Equivalent numbers for the Turbo are 500kW and 850Nm.

Tesla is taking the fight to Porsche with even more performance focused models.

So could a Taycan Turbo S set an even quicker Nürburgring lap time than the 7 minutes 42 seconds of the Turbo? “Potentially,” admits Albers, with a knowing smile.

The engineer also says Porsche will respond if Tesla does manage a Taycan-beating apples-to-apples officially timed lap in a production car. “We are very open for that challenge.”

Albers adds a put-down, without mentioning the American company’s name. “We are very confident what the result is.”