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Shavin’ seconds: Porsche 911 GT3 goes 12s faster on its Nurburgring record

4 May, 2017

The news is rather ironic, considering that Andreas Preuninger, head of Porsche’s GT road car department, was quoted not a month ago claiming that Porsche was not obsessing over Nurburgring lap times … now their new 911 GT3 has managed to lap the ‘Ring with an impressive 12.3 seconds to spare over the previous model.

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Equipped with the standard PDK transmission, rear-axle steering, optional carbon ceramic brakes, and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, the new GT3 was driven by Porsche test pilot, Lars Kern.

Setting a time of  7 minutes 12.7 seconds, it’s among the fastest to ever run the famous German track and represents performance improvement for a car that weighs roughly the same as its outgoing model and makes marginally more power. Significant credit then goes to aero changes between the two that has obviously made a big difference.

However, it’s not the fastest Porsche to tackle the ‘Ring; that is honour is held by the 918 Spyder — cranking out 887hp — which ran a blisteringly 6 minutes 57 seconds to holdthe production car world record up until recently.

But don’t take out word for it, watch as Kern slays the ‘Ring in 7 minutes 12.7 seconds

1986 Pontiac Firebird

9 October, 2025

Seeing the car with his own eyes already had Scott fizzing, but when the curator of the car let Scott sit in the driver’s seat it became a truly unforgettable day. There was no way Bo and Duke’s orange stunt jumper could compete with this. To top it off, a photograph of him sitting in the car turned up in the local paper, so he started a new school with an added aura as the kid in the Knight Rider car.
Scott still thought about the Knight Rider car from time to time, but if he had not gone with his wife Abbey to the Selwyn Motor Fest in 2018, it may have remained just a treasured memory. At the show, Abbey asked Scott what his favourite car was as they ambled round. The man she had married instantly connected with his nine-year-old self, but in a deeper voice he said, “KITT from Knight Rider”. Had she just said, “That’s nice dear,” and left it at that, life might have continued as normal. However, unaware of the hole she was about to start digging, she said that she had never heard of it.

Blueprinting basics

3 October, 2025

You occasionally hear petrol heads tossing around the term ‘blueprinting’ when referring to an engine they have assembled, and have sometimes altered significantly. What they are probably trying to say is that their engine was carefully machined to optimum tolerances and balanced — probably for racing. But that isn’t what the term meant originally. You see, in the 1950s, when US stock car race cars really had to be stock, the racing teams would go to the factories and rummage through the parts bins until they found components that were closest in tolerance to the original blueprint developed by the engine’s designers.