Porsche 911 GT3 RS review

• What is it?
• What’s its superpower? 
• Let me guess, it’s got monster power too?
• Presumably some lightweighting has occurred?
• What about the way it looks?
• What's the verdict?
• What is it like to drive?
• The conditions?
• That sounds hugely complicated.
• Did the track dry out?
• And the brakes?
• And on the road?
• What is it like on the inside?
• What should I be paying?

Overview

What is it?

The 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.

What’s its superpower? 

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 aero package required to pull this off is a triumph of attention to detail. Instead of three radiators in the front bumper – as per every other 911 in the range – the GT3 RS has one massive forward-leaning radiator inspired by the RSR and GT3 R racers. Downsides? You lose any storage in the front trunk. Upsides? Space is freed either side for those moveable underbody vanes that are constantly adjusting and working with the rear wing and diffuser to keep the aero balance 30 per cent front, 70 per cent rear.

Problem is, the radiator wants to shoot hot air straight out of the bonnet nostrils over the roof of the car and into the engine intakes on the rear deck. Not good. Naturally aspirated engines like cool, dense air, so those black fins on the bonnet usher the warm air out to the sides, and those blades on the roof stop it sneaking back towards the engine. Is it worth it? Well, the difference between 20 deg intake air versus 30 deg is a loss of 15bhp, so Porsche says yes it is. All those holes and vents around the wheels are designed with one purpose, too, to extract air from the arches and reduce lift.

Let me guess, it’s got monster power too?

No, actually. There have been gains, but gentle ones. 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.

Presumably some lightweighting has occurred?

Correct, but not before some additional weight was added. Next to a GT3, the hydraulic two-piece wing, the 911 Turbo body, the active aero in the front bumper and the wider track and fatter tyres all pile on the pounds. That podge is counteracted by optional magnesium wheels, the single radiator layout and carbon fibre for the wing, roof, doors, bonnet and front wings. The resulting kerbweight (with all the lightweight goodies) is 1,450kg, 15kg more than an equivalent GT3. Not bad considering it’s got the full canon of driver aids including rear-wheel steering, and adjustable… well everything. More on that in a bit.

What about the way it looks?

When we first clapped eyes on the GT3 RS, we hid behind the sofa through fear of being headbutted. It’s a challenging, brutal shape to look at, but spend some time with it and it wins you over with its uncompromising form and cartoonish proportions. It also looks good in pretty much any colour we’ve encountered. Don’t believe us? Proceed to the configurator immediately. 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.

Should we reserve judgement until we’ve driven it on the road? Nah. Lord knows how many racing miles 911 GT3s have racked up over the years and across the generations, but what we have here is an absolute masterclass in aero and chassis dynamics. We salute the fact that Porsche didn’t simply hike the power output, and chose instead to max out on other areas of the 911’s repertoire. There really is nothing else like it: a recent ‘Ring lap attempt had to be called off when the weather turned nasty, but brace yourselves for something outrageous when it does happen. The GT3 RS is no oil painting, but you won’t worry about its form given how well it all functions. You’ll need to bring your A-game, though. It deserves it.

Driving

What is it like to drive?

Let’s face it, given the hot-streak Porsche’s GT department has been on, and this car’s GT3-shaped starting point, it was unlikely to be a disappointment. But it’s a car you need to buy for the right reasons. Sure you can do some serious peacocking with that towering wing, but If you’re not intending to take it on track, or only very occasionally, then a 911 GT3 will give you the hardcore-911-for-the-road experience for a lot less – or a 911 Turbo might be more what you’re looking for. But first we must talk about conditions…

The conditions?

It was wet. Not ideal when a car is all about high-speed downforce and wearing Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres that need temperature in them before they start to work. During our driving stints around the Silverstone GP track we pushed as hard as our sense of mortality allowed and in some of the faster, sweeping bends you could definitely feel the downforce helping to pull grip from the surface. In other corners, particularly the final right-hander before the start-finish straight, it was like driving on ice, complete with armfuls of unprovoked oversteer.

But whereas with some track-focused supercars driving in these conditions would be a pointless exercise, the GT3 RS has a trick up its sleeve. Toggle up through Normal, Sport and into Track mode and four new dials on the steering wheel give you fine control over chassis settings that usually require a spanner and getting your jeans dirty. The spring rates are already 50 per cent stiffer than a GT3, but compression and rebound for the front and rear dampers can be adjusted through nine stages each with a twiddle of your thumb and finger, and it can be done on the fly. Similarly, the e-diff has nine settings for both Coast (the amount of rotation from the rear on the way into a corner) and Power. Finally, you can keep the ESC fully on, or switch the dynamic mode and play with the nine-level traction control… or just turn it all off.

That sounds hugely complicated.

It is, but really it’s totally intuitive, and given that wet conditions exaggerate angles, playing with the settings becomes a fascinating exercise. We could have lapped for hours tweaking the exact angle of attack on entry and the amount of tail wag on exit, despite the moist surface preventing us from getting anywhere near the car’s true limits. It’s an expensive toy, the GT3 RS, and this level of easily-accessible adjustability is a masterstroke at keeping both pro drivers and amateurs interested because the conditions, the track and your mood will always require a subtly different setup. Get it right, shave a tenth off your lap time and the satisfaction is immense.

As is the simple fact of revving this engine to 9,000rpm, and pinging up and down the flawless seven-speed PDK gearbox, especially with the crisp magnetised paddles. The only real improvements over a GT3 are a harder charge to the limiter above 6,000rpm, but that’s fine by us. Could it do with more power? It could certainly handle and exploit it, there’s definitely a lack of urgency on the straights compared to stuff like the Ferrari 296 GTB.

Just a note on the active aero, specifically the DRS system, which you can override with a button on the wheel for the full F1 experience on the straights… but you don’t need to. At all times the car is calculating in the background, and will auto activate DRS only if your speed is above 62mph, if the throttle is more than 95 per cent pressed, if revs are above 5,500rpm and the lateral acceleration is less than 0.9G. Brake and turn into a corner and it knows you need the downforce, snapping shut in a third of a second.

Did the track dry out?

It did. During a catch-up with ex-F1, ex-Porsche endurance star Mark Webber, he’d sworn quite a bit in an effort to describe the GT3 RS before concluding that it was a miracle the thing is eligible for number plates. And he’s bang-on: we don’t recall an – in inverted commas – road car that’s so brain-bendingly good on a track. Silverstone, at that, a high-downforce power circuit, where the harder you push the faster you go.

Although, as we’ve noted already, the GT3 RS trades ostensibly straightforward straight-line urge for maximum wizardry in the corners. The amount of speed you can carry through Copse, Maggots and Becketts is initially difficult to compute, even if you’re a track day regular or have competition experience. Sure, Michelin’s Cup 2 rubber is very special indeed, but we’re clearly way beyond pure mechanical grip here and into territory in which you have to put your faith firmly in the Gods of aero. The results are mesmerising. The manner and speed with which the GT3 RS changes direction, the accuracy of its movements and the detail it provides to your hands, feet and backside, are all extraordinary.

Porsche has worked hard to achieve the optimum balance between the front and rear axles, and the GT3 RS has significant anti-dive properties. For example, the front ball joint of the lower trailing arm sits further down on the front axle, so under hard braking a torque is created that counteracts any deflection. Porsche says that the ball joints on all the chassis bearings are motorsport-derived; the result is a car that harmonises all the elements, and this being a Porsche, the major controls feel like precision-engineered, competition-grade items.

And the brakes?

Cast iron 408mm diameter discs with six-piston calipers are standard issue, 380mm at the rear. But really, you want the Ceramic Composite jobs (a £6,498 option), with 410mm discs upfront and 390mm at the rear. You will definitely want these if ever you’re lucky enough to bag a few hot laps with Jörg Bergmeister, a class winner at Daytona and Spa, among others, in the 911 GT3-RSR, and one of the main development drivers on the new car. Don’t know how he’d configured it, but as he had a hand in the hardware and probably co-wrote the software, he can make this thing dance like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

We’ve never braked later at the end of Wellington Straight in anything ever, or sling-shotted harder out of Becketts, slip angles deftly dealt with. Sure, there are faster cars out there, and plenty with more power and greater high-speed agency, but if you’d imagined that Porsche’s aero efforts on this thing would add up to greatness, you imagined right. This is a singular and spectacular experience.

And on the road?

Not yet. Porsche claims the cars they flew to the UK for the launch event aren’t registered for road use yet. Whether that’s totally true or not, the initial messaging is clear – this is a track car first and foremost, and that’s how they want it to be experienced for now. That didn’t stop Andreas Preuninger, boss of the GT department, enthusing about how usable it is on the road “so long as you don’t mind dragging that wing around”, and how if you put it in track and dial the damper compression right back it’s actually softer than in ‘Normal’ mode, so that’s how Preuninger drives everywhere on the road.

Interior

What is it like on the inside?

Drop into the standard carbon bucket seats (less aggressive ‘Sports Seats Plus’ are a no cost option) and it’s all familiar 911 staring back at you. Sorry sadists, the infotainment screen and air-con can’t be deleted – modern electronics means it’s too intrinsically woven into the fabric of the car to rip out. We’re not complaining. The major difference is the modified steering wheel in front of you with the four new dials mentioned earlier, each changing their function depending on which mode you’re trying to adjust, which is reflected in the display in front of you.

The basics are black leather, black Race-Tex and carbon-fibre weave, although you can jazz things up with red inserts for the seats and door cards. The Clubsport package is a no-cost option and adds a steel roll cage, fire extinguisher and six-point harnesses. On top of that the Weissach pack, available for considerably more, can be spotted by the exposed carbon on the rear wing, mirrors, front hood and roof, while there are front and rear anti-roll bars and the roll cage itself can be ordered in carbon. If your pockets are deep enough, do it – it looks magnificent.

Buying

What should I be paying?

You should be paying £178,500 in the UK before options, and another £25,739 for the Weissach pack with carbon roll cage… but you won’t. As always with RS products, demand far outstrips supply so the chances of getting your name on the list at this late stage are slim to none. There will be cars hitting dealers soon of course, with massive mark-ups over list price, so if money’s no object there are ways to jump the queue.

Keyword: Porsche 911 GT3 RS review