Porsche Taycan sets EV lap record at The Bend

June 9, 2021June 9, 2021 Toby Hagon 2049 Views

It’s official: the Porsche Taycan is quick – record-breaking quick.

Porsche is claiming an EV lap record for its Taycan Turbo S around Australia’s longest race track, The Bend in South Australia.

The Taycan set a time of 3 minutes, 30.344 seconds around The Bend’s longest 7.77km GT circuit layout (by way of comparison, Bathurst’s Mount Panorama is 6.213km long).

Driven by Bathurst 1000 winner Luke Youlden – also the chief driving instructor for the Porsche Track Experience – the fastest in the Taycan family managed an average speed of 133km/h.

The Taycan fell just short of 250km/h down the main straight but managed some impressive pace out of corners, something Youlden credited to its impressive lap time.

2017 Bathurst 1000 winner and Porsche Track Experience chief instructor Luke Youlden in a Porsche Taycan Turbo S — 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner and Porsche Track Experience chief instructor Luke Youlden in the Taycan Turbo S that holds an EV lap record at The Bend

“The lap time of the Taycan just absolutely blew me away,” said Youlden. “You drive it in a similar way to any other Porsche sportscar. The turn-in, handling and acceleration were outstanding. The power out of the corners is definitely where it makes up a lot of time.

“We did under 2.5 seconds 0-100 (km/h) in this and that sort of feel off the corner is where the Taycan makes up most of its lap time.”

And just to maintain the status quo in the Porsche showroom – where the iconic 911 is still king – it was slower than the 911 Turbo, which set a time of 3:22.066 at an average speed of 138km/h on the same day.

The Taycan was also slower than the 911 GT2 RS – previously the pinnacle of Porsche performance – although the testing was done in 2018 when the track was brand new and hadn’t had time to “rubber up” (or collect rubber) which in turn improves grip.

The Porsche Taycan Turbo S at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia, where it set an EV lap record of 3:30.344 at an average speed of 133km/h

The Taycan lap record testing was conducted around the same time EV Central compared the Taycan Turbo S with the 911 Turbo around The Bend.

While our testing was done on the shorter 3.41km West Circuit, the results were similar in that the Taycan Turbo S was blisteringly quick but slightly slower than the 911 Turbo.