GT3 RSThe most extreme Porsche 911 ever produced. This new GT3 RS isn’t just inspired by motorsport, it’s a full-blown race car, albeit one with numberplates that’s been engineered for user-friendliness and accessibility for mortals on road and track. Relatively speaking. Exactly 50 years since the 2.7 RS started the 911 RS story, it’s a fitting no-stone-unturned exercise in the pursuit of speed.Downforce – as the feast of holes, wings, cutaways and vents suggest – both creating it and bleeding it off. The raw figures are astonishing: 860kg of downforce at 177mph and 406kg at 124mph, well over double those of the 991.2 GT3 RS it succeeds. And yet, thanks to moveable flaps in the front spoiler and a hydraulic DRS-style element in that huge swan neck rear wing, that can be dialled back to 306kg at 177mph in an instant. So, massive grip when you need it, less drag when you don’t.
The engine is a 4.0-litre naturally-aspirated flat-six revving to 9,000rpm and producing 518bhp, mainly thanks to hotter cam shaft profiles, but that’s only 15bhp more than a current-gen GT3 and only 5bhp more than the previous gen GT3 RS. Refreshing, isn’t it, in this age of easy access turbocharged and electric grunt, that Porsche has kept power pretty much constant, and focused its attention elsewhere. Like on the seven-speed PDK gearbox which gets a shorter final drive ratio than the GT3, or the wing-profiled wishbone suspension arms that contribute 40kg of downforce at top speed. But worry not, this is still not a slow car - 0-62mph in 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 184mph (14mph slower than the GT3-with-wing) are enough to be getting on with.During the launch event at Silverstone, Porsche had one parked up next to all five previous-generation GT3 RSs and it’s a different, genetically-modified breed. The others are 911s with wide bodies and wings… this is a freak.
