On the back of the 2018 Porsche 911 GT3 debuting with the option of a six-speed manual transmission, the boss of Porsche’s GT division says the automaker doesn’t care about setting record Nurburgring lap times.
While speaking with AutoGuide, Andreas Preuninger said Porsche brought back the manual for the latest GT3 because some owners aren’t fixated on lap times.
“There are a lot of people who aren’t looking at the stopwatch when they’re on the track and they just want the interaction and they want a driver’s car. This is the reason why we left the route of being the quickest on the Nurburgring and only thinking about lap times. I don’t care that the competition is a little bit faster around the ‘Ring.”
Preuninger went on to say that making a car blisteringly fast on the Nurburgring can ruin its driveability on the street, something Porsche doesn’t want to do.
“It’s not our mainstream program to have the quickest lap times and to advertise our cars only by lap time because, to be honest with you, if you have a car with the perfect setup for the Nurburgring, it will be a dog on the street and everywhere else.”
Although the manual GT3 clearly hasn’t been created with lap times in mind, Preuninger suggested that the German marque hasn’t totally forgotten about Nurburgring hot laps, saying that something very fast is coming.
“We will strike back because the Empire always strikes back. We have some aces up our sleeve because we’re competitive as well,” he said.
Watch out Lamborghini, the Porsche 911 GT2 RS is coming.
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