"More and more 911 GT3 customers are opting for the six-speed manual transmission. And more and more often we are asked by these customers how fast a 911 GT3 with manual transmission would be on the Nordschleife," said Andreas Preuninger, Director GT Model Line.

"We have now answered this question and – although we know that the variant with PDK is significantly faster – we drove our official lap time with a manual six-speed gearbox. Even without the automated, super-fast and precise gearshifts of the PDK, and with a conventional instead of electronically controlled limited-slip differential, the new 911 GT3 shaved around 3.6 seconds off the time of its predecessor with PDK."

On a sunny late afternoon, with an ambient temperature of 12 degrees and a track temperature of 27 degrees, Bergmeister set off on the 20.832-kilometre track in the 375 kW (510 hp) 911 GT3 with Weissach package. As with the official lap of the previous model, the car was fitted with road-legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 R tyres (255/35 R20 at the front and 315/30 R21 at the rear).

The goal: fastest lap time in a production car with manual transmission

"When we decided to set the official lap time of the new 911 GT3 with manual transmission, we naturally looked at who was at the top of the leaderboard," said Preuninger.

A competitor needed 7:01.300 minutes to complete a lap of the shortened 20.6-kilometre version of the track. This corresponds to a time of around 7:05.800 minutes on the full 20.832-kilometre lap. This was the time to be beaten. Under notarial supervision, the timer stopped at 6:56.294 minutes for the new 911 GT3, improving on the previous record by more than 9.5 seconds.

Better performance with the same power output

"The new 911 GT3 inspires even more confidence at the limit than the previous model. I was faster in almost every corner," said Bergmeister, describing the handling of the sports car.

"We learned a lot from the 911 GT3 RS, especially with the chassis. The car is much more stable on bumps and over the curbs. And thanks to the eight-per-cent-shorter gear ratio, there is noticeably more drive from the rear axle when accelerating with the same engine power. Even if it would have been a few seconds faster with the seven-speed PDK – with the six-speed manual gearbox I definitely had more to do on the fast lap – and it was therefore even more fun."