Porsche is known for building cars that really are extremely good right out of the box. Yes, they tend to be more expensive than the other German luxury car brands, particularly once the option list comes out. But it doesn’t take very long behind the wheel before the driving experience reveals why they’re so good. And that’s just the regular models; the stuff that comes out of the motorsport department in Weissach—like the sublime 911 GT3—is even more focused.
But for some drivers, those who choose to spend their spare time enjoying track days at places like the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany’s Eifel Mountains, even cars like the razor-sharp GT3 RS make too many compromises for the road. For those people, there is Manthey Racing.
Based at the industrial estate alongside the ’Ring, Manthey is a highly successful racing team—majority-owned by Porsche since 2013—that applies its years of experience making Porsches go even faster around the 12.9-mile (20.8 km) circuit known as the Green Hell to create upgrade kits that will turn the dials all the way up to 11.
Manthey’s newest upgrade kit is not for the 911 or 718, but the electric Taycan. Specifically, the Manthey Kit is an upgrade to the Taycan Turbo GT variant that Porsche introduced in 2024. More specifically, it requires the Taycan Turbo GT to also have the factory-installed Weissach package: this saves weight with carbon-fiber trim, thinner glass, a lighter sound system, and even loses the second charge port and the rear speakers to cut kilos. So equipped, the 0–60 mph (0–97 km/h) time falls from 2.2 seconds to 2.1 seconds.
But a more impressive statistic is how little time it took Porsche factory driver Lars Kern to lap the Nordschleife—in 2024, he completed a lap in 7 minutes, 7.5 seconds.
That’s a very fast lap time.
Credit:
Porsche
So the 12 seconds he shaved off with the Manthey Kit, setting a time of 6:55.553, should underscore just how much faster the car can now go. There’s more aerodynamic downforce courtesy of wild new body extensions, with louvers on the front wheel arches (presumably to let air escape the wheel well), a larger rear wing, new underbody diffusers, and aerodisc rear wheels. And the car’s downforce levels are tunable, so you can optimize it for whichever track you happen to be blistering this week.
