Porsche 918 successor will lap the Nurburgring in 6m 30s

Porsche will achieve this time no matter what it takes to get there.

Porsche has started writing the guidelines that will shape the 918 Spyder's successor. The central component of the project won't be a specific design or powertrain technology; the engineer's team main focus will be to log a jaw-dropping time on the Nurburgring.

"It must achieve a 6m 30s [time] at the Nürburgring. I don't care about the drivetrain, 6m 30s is the target. Sports cars are defined by their performance, then we have to look at how to achieve it," Frank-Steffen Walliser, the head of Porsche's Motorsport department, told Top Gear in an interview on the sidelines of the Los Angeles auto show.

Achieving Walliser's target time will be easier said than done. The Lamborghini Aventador SVJ currently holds the record for production, street-legal vehicles with a time of 6m 44s. Porsche's 911 GT2 RS lapped the 'Ring in 6m 47s, while a Porsche 918 Spyder (pictured) equipped with the optional Weissach Package recorded a time of 6m 57s.

Porsche's electrification offensive will kick into high gear in 2019. The company will release the Taycan, its first series-produced electric car, and it recently confirmed a hybrid 911 will arrive in about 2022. The 918 Hybrid's successor likely won't be entirely electric, though. "An electric car in 6m 30s is quite a challenge," Walliser pointed out.

Additional details about Porsche's next flagship are few and far between. We don't know what it will be called, what it will be powered by, or when it will make its debut. We don't expect to see it before 2020, however.