The Porsche 911 Turbo S just blistered the Pikes Peak production vehicle record

Porsche retakes the throne at Pikes Peak. Beat the old record by nearly 25 seconds.

When a Bentley Continental GT beat the production car record at Pikes Peak in 2019, it dethroned a 991 generation 911 Turbo S off the royal seat.

Despite Bently being a member of the large Volkswagen family which also has Porsche in it, the Stuttgart-based automaker was never going to sit back and let Bently have the record for long, because as of 27 September 2022, the production king of Pikes Peak is once again Porsche.

When GT3 Cup racer David Donner, '000' editor Pete Stout and Porsche collector Jim Edwards arrived at Pikes Peak in 2022, they had one common goal and that goal was to put back the 911 as the King of Pikes Peak. 

Not only have they succeeded in dethroning the Bently, but they also pushed the car to the limits, which saw the 992 generation 911 Turbo S be the first street-legal vehicle to complete the famous hill climb in less than 10 minutes(9-minutes 53.5 seconds to be exact). 

This is nearly 25 seconds faster than the record-breaking Bently, which set the standard by recording a 10-minute and 18.4-second time.

According to Donner, the current 911 Turbo S has all the right attributes for a record-breaking run. With its combination of huge power, traction and low weight, it afforded Donner the right balance between grip and acceleration to navigate Pikes Peak.

"There's no question that having all-wheel drive benefitted the run. You could just hammer it out of the turns and the car would just hook up", said Donner.

Thanks to a new Pikes Peak program that allows certified course times to be recorded outside races, the time will stand in the records book. 

The 911 Turbo S used for the run is almost as identical to the ones you can buy at showrooms. The only difference between the 000 car and the ones in the showroom is a roll cage, sports seat, fire system and tweaks to the ECU and exhaust system. It's unclear if the team had meddled around with its 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six engine but a standard version can push out 640hp and 800Nm of torque.