At a glance
- Double Olympic champion Tom Pidcock joins Porsche brand ambassador Jörg Bergmeister for a Nordschleife track day with Manthey.
- His 911 GT3 RS with Manthey Kit reveals the shared demands of elite cycling and high-performance driving: precision, confidence and feel.
- Bergmeister offers insights into car set-up and technique, praising Pidcock’s natural pace and control.
British athlete Tom Pidcock is considered one of the most versatile and accomplished cyclists of his generation, competing across mountain biking, road racing and cyclo-cross. He won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in cross-country mountain biking at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games and has also won the cyclo-cross world title as well as major road races.
Away from cycling, however, Pidcock enjoys an even faster-paced pastime – one that allows him to test his limits at the wheel of his 992.1-generation 911 GT3 RS with Manthey Kit. To call it a hobby, though, would be something of an understatement – given that he recorded a bridge-to-gantry lap time of 6:52.37 on the Nordschleife earlier this year.
Where cycling meets motorsport
It’s a cold and very wet start to the day at the Nürburgring when Pidcock arrives to meet Porsche development driver and former racing driver Jörg Bergmeister. The aim of the day is to explore the capabilities of, and the remarkable engineering behind, the 911 GT3 RS with Manthey Kit – and, above all, to have fun.
But as the rain continues to pour down, the pair head for a behind-the-scenes tour of Manthey, based a stone’s throw from Döttinger Höhe, the Nordschleife’s famous two-kilometre straight. Right away, Pidcock spots parallels between the worlds of motorsport and professional cycling. “The organisation of the race team and where all the parts are feels very similar to how we have our service course in the cycling team,” says the 27-year-old. “The parts storage, the packing lists – it’s a similar world.”
The similarities extend to the principles applied to development too. In both fields, success and progress rely heavily not only on detailed analytical assessment but also on the perception and know-how of experts.
Why confidence is key on the Nordschleife
“What I’ve learned from Manthey is that, if you’re developing a car at the Nürburgring, the data doesn’t tell you everything. You have to use feeling,” says Pidcock. “And personally, I think feeling is even more valuable than data when I’m trying to develop a bike. The Nordschleife is such an unpredictable place, and Porsche and Manthey manage to make the cars feel as predictable as possible for the people driving them.”
Being fast and being repeatably fast, including in the hands of both a pro driver and a seasoned amateur, are two different things. The latter is all about control and having a strong link between driver and vehicle. “The key to being quick, especially here, is to be confident,” Bergmeister says. “When you have confidence in the car, that’s when you can push and extract the most performance out of it.”
Tom Pidcock takes his 911 GT3 RS to the Nordschleife
By early afternoon, conditions improve and the two head out on track, equipped with Michelin Pilot Sport S 5 tyres – the wet-weather tyre for the 911 GT3 RS. Right away, Bergmeister is impressed with how quickly Pidcock is on his tail – despite the latter’s insistence that he always sets out with the aim of building pace gradually, pushing harder as his confidence increases in the car. “I know a couple of pro and ex-pro cyclists, and the line and flow that it takes to do a smooth, quick lap comes naturally to these guys,” says Bergmeister. “Tom gets in and knows exactly what he’s doing and has great feel for the car – and also no fear!”
As the track dries out and grip levels increase, dry-weather tyres are fitted and Bergmeister suggests some subtle adjustments to the damper settings and offers Pidcock a few tips on getting the best out of his car. “For someone who isn’t here regularly, Tom’s pace is pretty mind-blowing. There are people on the Ring every day who go slower,” says Bergmeister. “The advice I could give him is to simply focus on hitting the marks: braking points, turn-in points. But you can see it all comes naturally. I guess there’s a reason why he’s so good on the descents in cycle racing!”
Asked what draws him to driving high-performance cars on the Nordschleife, Pidcock’s answer is startlingly simple. “I guess it’s because it’s about ‘high performance’, just like cycling is for me. It’s the same mindset,” he says. “Driving, in general, is a pursuit of improvement, which is constant in what I do daily. But here there’s no pressure – I can also enjoy the fact that I don’t need to push it to the extreme limit. When I’m competing [in my career], there’s always so much pressure, so on track it’s nice that I can simply just compete with myself.”
How the Manthey Kit sharpens the 911 GT3 RS
And this is where Porsche’s GT cars come into their own – especially those even further optimised for driving on track with the Manthey Kit. The targeted upgrades the Kit brings to the suspension, brakes and aerodynamics combine to take track performance to an even higher level. “It’s all the little details – working and tweaking everything to bring the full system and the full package together,” says Bergmeister. “That’s what Manthey does, to a really extreme level, with absolute focus on the racetrack. It’s all about performance.”
