Who doesn’t love a good rivalry? We’re getting a great one going on right now between Mercedes-AMG and Porsche, two German automakers who have been pushing for faster and faster lap records at the iconic Nürburgring Nordschleife race track.
Earlier this week, Porsche destroyed the previous lap record with its 911 GT2 RS, tackling the longer 12.9-mile route in a mere six minutes and 43.300 seconds. That’s an average speed of over 115 miles per hour. And that also crushes the previous lap record of 6:48 set by the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series.
There’s just one problem: Porsche added the Manthey Performance Kit to its vehicle to help it set the record. And Mercedes is throwing shade.
“Fair competition has always inspired us,” Mercedes-AMG wrote on Facebook. “Congrats on that belter of a lap on the Nordschleife, Porsche – even though it took an additional performance kit to beat the record time set by our series production Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series…”
You have to love some passive aggressive Facebook sass between high-profile German automakers and not members of your family. Of course, Mercedes had to throw a little shade now that it’s been beaten… but from a truly technical perspective, the performance kit added to the Porsche is still road legal and available to European customers. It’s a modification, yes — but it’s an option customers can purchase, and it even comes with a warranty.
I have to give Porsche a little credit here because of that; it’s not like it completely changed the construction of the car beyond something that the regular customer couldn’t purchase. But I can see where Mercedes-AMG is coming from here.
I just hope we get to see these two automakers sort out their little internet beef on the race track. That’s the only proper way to solve a problem.
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