Few rivalries in the motoring world enjoy more banter than those from Germany. BMW’s rivalry with Mercedes-Benz and Audi is the most obvious one, but it’s also worth noting the rivalries these brands have with Porsche when you go further up the performance fo…

Few rivalries in the motoring world enjoy more banter than those from Germany. BMWs rivalry with Mercedes-Benz and Audi is the most obvious one, but its also worth noting the rivalries these brands have with Porsche when you go further up the performance food chain.Porsche recently reclaimed the record of fastest production car around the Nurburgring Nordschleife, clocking a 6min 43sec time with its Manthey Racingtweaked
911 GT2 RS. The rapid time carved five seconds off the former record-holding 6min 48.04sec set by the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series.
Revealed last week,
the lap is undoubtedly an impressive one (being around one minute quicker than the best time set by a 997 GT3). But, it did raise some questions around
manufacturers using bolt-on performance packages to achieve these times. And Mercedes-Benz is clearly keen to drive the point home.
In a post on social media, the three-pointed star congratulated Porsches efforts before slotting in its little jab. Fair competition has always inspired
us, it said. 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.
As previously reported, the actual Manthey Performance Kit at the centre of all the chit chat adds a new aero package (including front spoiler flaps, modifications
to the diffuser, a new rear spoiler, and rear wheel aero discs), either 20- or 21-inch wheels, a ceramic composite brake package, and track-ready coilover
suspension with adjustable shocks.
All up, the aero changes add an additional 21kg of downforce to the front end of the GT2 RS and 107kg out back at 200km/h. This is paired to the GT2 RSs
already very potent package, built around a rear-mounted 3.8-litre turbocharged flat six producing 515kW of power and 750Nm of torque.
Perhaps Mercedes could just bolt a slightly larger rear wing on the Black Series, cram a bunch of GT3-spec parts under its pretty panel work, and beat
Porsche at their own game…