Porsche's 919 Hybrid Evo was up and running early this morning at the Nurburgring's Nordschleife where it successfully beat Stefan Bellof's 35-year-old track record of the daunting circuit.
Two-time Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard was behind the wheel of the specially modified LMP1 racer and shaved nearly a full minute off the 6m11.13s time achieved by Bellof at the Nurburgring 1000 km in 1983.
Bernhard ground around the 20.82 km track to lay down a final marker of 5m19.546s.
Porsche's dedicated 919 Evo was tweaked earlier this year, the manufacturer's engineers extracting more power from its V4 turbo engine and its hybrid systems and increasing the car's downforce by as much as 50 percent, thanks partly to an F1- inspired DRS rear wing.
For many however, the massive technological gap which exists between a Porsche 956 Group C car and Porsche's modern monster hybrid machine means the record was always going to be beaten.
For Bellof fans however, the old lap record still stands…
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