Falling Left and Right: C8 Corvette ZR1’s Lap Record at Road Atlanta Beaten by a Porsche 911 GT2 RS with Manthey Racing Kit

May 20, 2026

153

Falling Left and Right: C8 Corvette ZR1's Lap Record at Road Atlanta Beaten by a Porsche 911 GT2 RS with Manthey Racing Kit

Photo Credit: Porsche USA

Records are set to be broken, and when something – or someone – arrives on the scene setting new highwater marks everywhere it goes, it’s just a matter of time until its name is back in the headlines as new challengers arise. The 2025 Corvette ZR1 that terrorized track record books two years ago now finds itself in the latter group.

In April, Ford’s beefed-up $400k Mustang GTD Competition retook the American Nürburgring record with a pro driver at the helm. Now, a German car has come to America to knock the ZR1 off the top spot at one of the five tracks it conquered for its reveal party. More specifically, three Porsches arrived state-side to try their hands at Road Atlanta – which makes sense, with ATL being Porsche’s North American base of operations.

Before going any further, though, we might want to put an asterisk next to the Porsches’ times as they weren’t factory-spec cars. They were all fitted with upgrade kits from Manthey Racing, making them more comparable to Callaway or Lingenfelter Corvettes than anything straight out of Kentucky. It isn’t worthy of another asterisk – it just shines a light on GM’s strange self-handicapping by having engineers pilot their record laps instead of pros – but Porsche also helped itself by putting former factory driver Jörg Bergmeister behind the wheel.

Manthey’s take on the current 911 GT3 and GT3 RS was joined by a previous-generation GT2 RS at Road Atlanta. The Manthey GT3 improved on the stock version’s time by 1.8 seconds. Meanwhile, the upgraded GT3 RS set a new record for naturally aspirated cars at Road Atlanta, but the big story was achieved by the old guard.

The Manthey Kit for the yet-to-be-replaced GT2 RS “was developed by Manthey Racing in close cooperation the Porsche development center in Weissach” and it includes a more extreme aero package, coil-over suspension, upgraded brakes, and advanced cooling via an additional water tank for a whopping $126,161 on top of the cost of the car.

The 700-horse twin-turbo GT car stopped the clock in 1:22.649, topping the engineer-driven ZR1’s 1:22.80, and beating the stock 2RS’ time of 1:24.88 set in 2019. This, of course raises several questions that will be much easier to answer than the ones that must be resolved on the other side of the world. First, while we got domestic ZR1 times, we haven’t seen the 1,250-horsepower all-wheel-drive ZR1X turn a tire on any of the famed American tracks. While its benefit at the ‘Ring was negligible compared to the lighter RWD 1,064-horse ZR1, its superior traction could pay dividends on the shorter, more technical road courses in the States.

As usual, we’re left wondering what someone like Jörg could do in a ZR1 if given the chance. Just like we’ve come to realize the back-and-forth with the Mustang GTD doesn’t really matter because we know the ZR1 is the faster car, there’s no way the 364+ HP more powerful ZR1 can’t outdo even a souped-up version of the last-gen 911, with all other things being equal. It’s just a matter of getting the right driver installed in the ‘Vette’s left seat. On our home turf, none of the monetary issues outlined by Hagerty’s excellent interview with Corvette Chief Tony Roma hold much water, and there’s an embarrassment of Chevy and GM-aligned talent to choose from on our shores, so retaking the record and setting new, untouchable marks everywhere from Laguna Seca to the Glen, will hopefully be a matter of if, not when.