Porsche has recently revived its “Top 5” series of videos, looking at some of the extraordinary cars it has made over its 70-year history.
This time it’s the turn of the speed kings, as Porsche highlights the five fastest road cars to come out of Stuttgart’s workshops. For the video below, Porsche took its fast fleet to Ehra-Lessien. The 12-mile test track features a 5.5-mile straight — so long that you cannot see one end from the other due to the Earth’s curvature. It’s here that Bugatti sets its top speed records, so what better place to find out which is the fastest Porsche?
Surprisingly, fifth place goes to a current model. The 991 Turbo S produces 580hp from the 3.8-liter Boxer engine. That’s sufficient to give the 991 a 205mph top speed; good, but in this company not good enough.
The brand’s second true supercar — and best-sounding model ever — takes fourth. With a 612hp, 5.7-liter V10, the Porsche Carrera GT is the slowest car here off the line, but hits the speed trap at 208mph.
Knocking it out of the top three is its predecessor. Porsche’s 959 may have “only” been able to hit 197mph, but its story doesn’t end there. Made to order for special customers, Porsche also built 29 “959 S” models. Each had a different power output, according to customer specifications, but they peaked at 515hp, up from 450hp in the standard car. That made it capable of almost 211mph.
That’s just pipped — by 1km/h — by another current car. The 911 GT2 RS is Porsche’s fastest ever car around the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Like its fifth-placed sibling, the GT2 RS packs a 3.8-liter Boxer six-cylinder, but the power is up to 690hp.
But, for now, the undisputed champion is the 918 Spyder. This hybrid car uses a 4.6-liter V8 in combination with front and rear electric motors, to produce a total of 875hp. This too was a Porsche Nordschleife champion until beaten by the GT2 RS, but its 214mph top speed is still unmatched by anything else from the brand.
You can watch the video below. Don’t forget to turn up the speakers for the Carrera GT…
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