Are Modern Cars ‘Too Fast’ for Nurburgring?

According to ace Porsche driver Walter Röhrl, we’ve officially reached the point where testing production cars on the Nurburgring is a dangerous proposition.

Porsche test driver and two-time World Rally Champion Walter Röhrl is obviously no stranger to pushing cars to their very limits. That includes exploring the upper limits of production Porsche vehicles on the famed Nurburgring. After all, Röhrl set lap times at the ‘ring for several production Porsches over the years, including the previous generation of the 911 GT2. But now, after Porsche achieved a record lap in the new GT2, he believes that we’ve officially reached the point where production cars are too fast for the historic track.

“You have no room for mistakes, that’s the bad thing,” Röhrl told Australia’s Drive. “On the speeds like in this car (GT2), you go Schwedenkreuz at 295km/h and Fuchsrohre at 270km/h, and I know all the accidents which have been on these places in the last 20 years. If you come to Fuchsrohre at 270, I always think one of the test drivers from Bridgestone, he broke the [wheel] rim.”

Judging by recent history, it seems that the ace driver has a point. Koenigsegg discovered that slim margin for error just last year when an ABS sensor failed on the Fuchsrohre section, resulting in a horrific crash. Röhrl also noted that production cars like the GT2, while formidable, simply don’t produce nearly as much downforce at high speed as purpose built racers.

This line of thinking, coupled with the 70-year old’s advanced age, led Röhrl to sit out Porsche’s record setting effort in the new GT2. But it clearly won’t stop Porsche, and other automotive manufacturers, from continuing to push the envelope at the Nurburgring.

‘Why not keep the engineering challenge on? There’s no reason to stop the competition.’

“Mankind developed all the time going faster,” head of Porsche’s motorsport and GT road cars, Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser, said. “Why not keep the engineering challenge on? There’s no reason to stop the competition.” Walliser also humorously admitted that there’s no pressure on Porsche drivers to push themselves past the point of safe driving.

“We have no target lap time. The most important thing, I want to sit down with you together to drink a beer…with no target lap time.”

We have zero doubt that the beer drinking bit is accurate. But if you believe that Porsche didn’t have the ‘ring lap record in sight when they unwrapped the new 911 GT2, well, we’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.