Porsche heads to Road America to capture another lap record

Porsche announced on Tuesday that it has set the production-car lap record at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.    

The GT2 RS in question shoved its way to a 2:15.17 lap time, thanks in part to the skill of its driver, Le Mans and Daytona class winner David Donohue.     

While Road Atlanta had a production-car lap record to beat, Road America is a little different.     

With a distinct lack of production car lap records here, Porsche instead set its benchmark based on a 2:17.04 lap that a private GT2 RS owner ran last year.

Wielding the same Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R N0 tires that it used at the Nürburgring, which are available as an optional upgrade for RS-model owners, Porsche was able to knock about two seconds off that time.

In 2008, an Audi R10 TDI Le Mans prototype managed to lap Road America in 1:46.935, so it's clear that there's still a very large performance gulf.   

Even near-production GTC-class race cars can still lap in the 2:14 range, which means it's commendable how close Porsche came to meeting a race car's lap time in a production car.

Then again, with 690 horsepower on tap, the GT2 RS had better be a monster.

It'll reach 60 miles per hour in 2.7 seconds.

With enough flat ground in front of it, the GT2 RS will top out at 211 mph.