The Porsche 911 Carrera RS turned 50 this year, two nouns and one abbreviation (it means Renn Sport, or racing sport) that signify everything to the faithful in the world of high performance cars. This is a bloodline that draws on an unparalleled amount of motorsport technique, that sharpens, lightens and enhances in the pursuit of (mostly) track-focused hedonism. Millions of racing miles later, it’s fair to say that what these dudes don’t know about going fast is categorically not worth knowing.
Now wrap your eyes around the new 911 GT3 RS. This is not only the most extreme Porsche 911 ever produced, a veritable super freak, it’s arguably the most extreme road car in history. Yep, it’s road legal, and wears regular number plates, a status former Formula One driver and Porsche endurance racing champion Mark Webber describes as a ‘miracle’ when GQ catches up with him at Silverstone. You could go to the supermarket or commute in it.
But what an heroic waste of time that would be, given the lengths Porsche has gone to to make this thing work on a track. The GT3 RS is very, very far from a slouch – 0-62mph in 3.2 seconds, 184mph top speed – but if you’re looking at those numbers, or perhaps wondering why the 518bhp RS only has a measly 15bhp more than the regular GT3, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Porsche could easily have squeezed more power out of it, but the focus here is on aerodynamics and chassis, more difficult and scientific lines of enquiry, but also, as we’ll see, even more thrilling.
This is pure race car stuff, derived from GT competition but also F1. The GT3 RS generates 860kg of downforce at 177mph and 406kg at 124mph, double the numbers its predecessor managed. There are active flaps at the front and that enormous ‘swan neck’ rear wing includes DRS – a drag reduction system, as on F1 racers – so that the level of downforce can be trimmed back to 306kg at 177mph in a split second. In other words, there’s huge grip when you need it, or the facility to cut aerodynamic drag when you don’t.
There are various track day machines out there that perform all sorts of aero tricks, but nothing like this. It’s nuts. It's next-level.
The GT3 RS also has one front-mounted radiator instead of the usual three to create space for underbody vanes to hustle the air into maintaining a 30/70 aero split front to rear. There are fins on the bonnet to evacuate hot air, and more on the roof to stop it interfering with the cooler air the engine prefers (that can rob 10 or 15bhp, says Porsche). There are other vents to extract the turbulent air around the wheels and to reduce lift. Hell, some of the vents have vents. OK, so this leaves the GT3 RS looking like some genetically modified experiment of a car, but once again, if beauty is what you’re after, you’re back at that tree making a fool of yourself. Note that the rear wing, roof, doors, bonnet and front wing are all made of carbon fibre.
It’s like a regular 911 inside, though, albeit with the option of a roll cage and serious hip-hugging bucket seats. Black leather, race-tex trim and carbon fibre weave are all available, with red inserts as a livener. On previous GT3 RSs you could delete the infotainment and climate control for maximum purity, but no longer: the tech is integral to the car’s nervous system these days. There are more buttons than ever on the steering wheel: select Track mode and a world of possibility opens up. The RS’s springs are already 50 per cent stiffer than on the regular GT3, but now you can adjust compression and rebound on the front and rear dampers through nine stages. The electronic diff has the same amount of settings, and can be similarly adjusted on the move to alter the amount of rotation you get at the rear. And the traction control now also has nine stages, according to how slidey you’re feeling. Initially intimidating, it’s soon clear that this is a car with a chassis and aero bandwidth unlike anything we’ve ever driven.
And it is extraordinary. The engine is a 4.0-litre naturally aspirated flat-six that can rev to 9,000rpm and produces 518bhp. It’s as charismatic as ever, harnessed to that familiarly fast-shifting PDK gearbox. Yes, there are cars out there with way more power than that, and the next-gen 911 will be getting hybrid electric assistance, and will no doubt be amazing, as is the pure-electric Porsche Taycan… But weighing in at 1,450kg, the RS’s power-to-weight ratio is plenty good enough, and as amazing as that engine is, it’s merely the support act here to the chassis and aerodynamic wizardry.
The full Grand Prix track at Silverstone is not for the faint-hearted and it takes time to dial into it. The entry into the start-finish straight catches a lot of people out – especially if it’s damp – and turns one, two and three require major concentration. But once driver, tyres and brakes are all up to full operating temperature, the GT3 RS is simply staggering. After consulting former GT racer and Porsche development driver Jörg Bergmeister – who sounds like the archetypal racing driver but is about seven feet tall – I leave things fairly neutral. Frankly, I’d need more time to run through all the options. Whatever is going on, the amount of speed you can carry through Silverstone’s most famous corners – Copse, Maggots and Becketts – is initially difficult to get your head around, whether you’re a track day regular or not. The car is shod in Michelin’s magnificent Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, which is a massive bonus, but the RS is way beyond pure mechanical grip and all about the downforce.
And that means taking a leap of faith. Such is the supreme balance of the car, front to rear, that the faster you go, the better it gets, but you need to believe that and keep the pressure on. The way the GT3 RS changes direction, the accuracy of its movements and the detail it provides as it does so, is just incredible. With practice and familiarity, you’ll get to a point at which you’ll think it impossible to go any faster. Like you’re taunting physics. Which is a good time to climb in beside Bergmeister and have all your parameters smashed to smithereens: as with all the top drivers, his touch under braking is supernaturally good, the amount of speed he can rinse out of the car mesmerising. It’s a devastating, jaw-dropping demonstration.
The 911 GT3 RS costs £178,500 in the UK, but you’ll want the optional carbon ceramic brakes (£6498) and the Weissach pack adds more carbon fibre and a roll cage – and costs a further £25,739. Except that the cult of RS means that Porsche dealers worldwide are massively over-subscribed and if your name’s not already down, well, you can’t come in. So enjoy from afar, and bow down before one of the greatest and most challenging Porsches ever made.
