Springtime in Germany means 'Ring season, at least this year. After Ford slapped down its Mustang response to Chevrolet's ZR1 Corvettes earlier this month, now it's Porsche's turn to reveal a time, though it's technically in a car made by someone else.The updated Manthey Kit for the 911 GT3 has just slashed five seconds off its previous Nürburgring lap. To be extremely technical, the upgraded 911 didn't beat the non-hybrid, 1,064-horsepower ZR1's lap time. But the numbers are so insanely close that, for all intents and purposes, it's a dead heat. That means the GT3 is ZR1-fast with a fraction of the horsepower. And bear in mind, we're talking about the 911 GT3 here, not the GT3 RS, which already went faster. Making Those Aerodymanics Work For You Manthey Racing / PorscheThe time in question is 6 minutes,50.863 seconds. That's the new lap that the Porsche 911 GT3 with Manthey Kit set around the iconic Nordschleife loop. It's 4.874 seconds quicker than the old one, which is certainly quicker, but it's also starting to split hairs. Not only is three seconds almost insignificant on a nearly 13-mile lap, but Porsche's official time chart is also now an official mess.You might think that the new Manthey Kit-equipped 911 GT3 would be the quickest GT3 around the 'Ring. And it is, except for the 911 GT3 RS Manthey Kit, which is 5.5 seconds quicker again. This time is also a couple of seconds quicker than the time set by the same car and driver last fall.The quicker GT3 RS Manthey Kit, which isn't really the focus of this, ran a 6:45 on April 15, the same day that the non-RS set its 6:50. Is that one the fastest 911? Nope, the fastest official lap of a sports car around the Nürburgring is the 991-generation GT2 RS Manthey Performance Kit, which is now a two-generation-old car. Or at least 1.5 generations old.That GT2 is the fastest sports car because the Corvettes and the Mustangs aren't in the same group. Officially, the Americans are considered "prototypes/pre-production vehicles" because they aren't yet legal in the EU. But we digress.The GT3 Manthey's 6:50.863 is about as close to a tie as you can get with the ZR1, which ran a 6:50.763 last fall. That's one-tenth of a second off, which would be about a car length at 150 mph. Compared to the even-more-powerful ZR1X, it's only a second and a half behind. And there's a Hellcat worth of horsepower separating them. A second and a half ain't so bad. 503 HP VS 1,064, And The Winner Is Hilarious Manthey Racing / Porsche What truly makes the 911's times impressive is what powers the car. Even the Manthey 911 GT3s use a naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six that makes 503 horsepower. The RS model boosts that to 518.Compare that with the Corvette ZR1, which makes 1,064 hp, more than double the figure. Or the ZR1X, which is barely faster despite having 1,250 hp and all-wheel drive. Ford's Mustang GTD Competition makes somewhere north of 800 and is only slightly quicker.What makes the Manthey Kit faster around the track? More downforce than a standard GT3, thanks to larger turning vanes, a new front lip, and a Gurney flap on the rear wing. It also has a four-way adjustable coilover suspension that lets the driver (or more likely their mechanic) set up the car for the track that you're on.If you want the kit for your own 911 GT3, you're looking at $70,000. That's on top of the price of a GT3, of course, which currently starts at $235,800 plus destination, fees, and whatever it will take or cost to get you on your dealer's allocation list. Not that the quicker GTD Competition or a ZR1X is going to be any easier to get.We might poke fun, but this is still a very fast time. We can't wait for the next RS model to get a shot. And for the next GT2 RS Manthey to show up and make it clear to Ford and GM who is really the king of the 'Ring.