Last year, BYD punched its ticket to the performance world with the Yangwang U9 Xtreme. Not only did it become the world’s fastest production car, but it also smashed the fastest lap time for a production EV at the Nurburgring.

Well, as expected, the old guards have responded. Porsche has posted a new lap record for production EVs at the legendary Nordschleife circuit with the Taycan Turbo GT. The electric GT sports car was fitted with the Weissach package, along with a new Manthey kit to push the boundaries of performance even further.

With Porsche development driver Lars Kern behind the wheel, the Manthey-spec Taycan Turbo GT lapped the 20.832 km circuit in 6:55.553. This is four seconds faster than the BYD Yangwang U9 Xtreme, which had almost three times more horsepower than the Porsche. Likewise, the addition of the Manthey kit made the Taycan Turbo GT beat its own record by 12 seconds.

So what sorcery did the Manthey kit do? Well, it didn’t add that much horsepower, but the driving dynamics and the updated aerodynamics made the Taycan Turbo GT a “stickier” car on the track. 

Visual add-ons include a larger one-piece front lip, carbon-fiber fender flares and wider side skirts, as well as the trademark rear aerodisc wheels complementing the larger rear wing, revised front and rear diffusers, along with the larger underbody deflectors. Wider tires have also been fitted.

The result? The total downforce has increased from 209 to 683 lbs when traveling at 200 km/h. And when travelling at the top speed, which has increased from 304 to 309 km/h, the Taycan Turbo GT with Manthey Kit produces about 1631 lbs. of total downforce. This contributed to higher potential cornering speeds and better vehicle stability.

For the powertrain, the Taycan Turbo GT with the Manthey Kit is now putting out 816 PS on standard mode, while short bursts in attack mode and launch control mode make 992 PS and 1033 PS, respectively.

Porsche has yet to announce when the Manthey kit will be available for retail sales of the Taycan Turbo GT, as well as the price of the additional equipment. But as it stands, it will be interesting to see if China will respond with this new record.