The Porsche 911 GT3 is now the fastest manual car to lap the Nürburgring, beating the previous record-holder by nearly 10 seconds.

Porsche has sent the recently updated '992.2' around the Nordschleife – with ambassador and ex-racer Jörg Bergmeister at the wheel – in 6min 56.294sec.

That's not only 3.6sec quicker than the pre-facelift 992 with a PDK automatic gearbox but also substantially quicker than the previous fastest manual car, the hardcore Dodge Viper ACR, which Porsche notes has a "significantly more powerful engine". 

The American supercar, with a 645bhp 8.4-litre V10, claimed its record lap time of 7min 1.3sec in 2017 - but that was around the shortened 20.6km circuit and corresponds to a time of 7min 5.8sec around the full-length 20.832km loop, according to Porsche.

By that metric, the stick-shift GT3, with a 503bhp flat six, was 9.5sec faster around the Green Hell. 

The car used for the attempt was equipped with the Weissach Package – a £20k optional extra that brings a raft of weight-saving measures to shave 12kg over the standard GT3 – and was shod with sticky (but still road-legal) Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 R tyres.

Andreas Preuninger, who runs Porsche's GT division, said: "More and more 911 GT3 customers are opting for the six-speed manual transmission. And more and more often we are asked by these customers how fast a 911 GT3 with manual transmission would be on the Nordschleife. We have now answered this question and, although we know that the variant with PDK is significantly faster, we drove our official lap time with a manual six-speed gearbox."

Porsche told Autocar that just under a quarter of standard GT3s are ordered with a manual gearbox in the UK, while just over half of wingless GT3 Touring orders are manual.