84 whichcar.com.au/wheels
HEN Porsche informed us
that our 911 GT3 RS drive
at the Nurburgring was on
the GP circuit rather than
the Nordschleife, I felt a
pang of disappointment. It
felt a bit like visiting the
Monaco Grand Prix only to
get no further than the merch
tent. Having climbed out of
the car after a handful of hot
laps, soaked through with
sweat, hands slightly a-tremorand then struggling for ways to fit what I’d
just experienced into any sensible frame of
reference, I’m relieved that Porsche decided
on the GP track’s more benign acreage of
bitumen rather than the pine-pinioned
rollercoaster of the Green Hell. My input
meter is pegged as it is.
The latest 991.2 version of the GT3 RS
will do that for you. In case you’re not
aware, here are the cliff notes. It tips the
scales at 1430 kilograms and features a
normally aspirated 4.0-litre flat-six in the
back, driving through a seven-speed PDK
gearbox. A manual is not available. Peak
power is rated at 383kW at 8250rpm, up
a mere 15kW on the GT3. Torque creeps
up by 10Nm to 470Nm at 6000rpm. Zero
to 100km/h disappears in 3.2 seconds and
physics will only see the RS run out of
answers at 312km/h.
At this point most reasonable people
may well wonder why you’d pay more than
25 percent over the price of the sublime
GT3 to land a car with improveme
appear distinctly marginal.
the justification they’
the historical resale
models but if you re
far this car has come
consider this. Porsche h
these cars around the No
since the first GT3 RS app
In the intervening 12 years
the introduction of that car
991 version, the lap times im
by 26 seconds. Yet this 991.2 v
carves a massive 24 second chu
predecessor’s time, recording a
gobsmacking 6min 56.4sec mark.
That circuit pace has been achie
through four key areas, and the first
are relatively easy to explain. The eng
additional power comes solely from th
fitment of a freer-breathing titanium
exhaust and some electronic tweaks. Oth
than that, it’s absolutely identical to the
lump you get in the back of a GT3. The
second factor that skews things a little
is the driver. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen
a production car driven on the old track
with quite the demented commitment
that Kevin Estre displayed when gifted an
hour-long window in perfect conditions by
the generous Corvette test team. He came
within inches of grief after misjudging the
double-right after the jump at Pflanzgarten
but still kept it pinned, giving Porsche three
cars that have clocked under seven minutes,
the GT2 RS and 918 Spyder being the others.s
rahe
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ordschleifeever
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particularly effectcccive.The GT3RS noww
deliveersmore downforcethananyyyPorsche
roadcar. Yes, that even includesthe mighty
GT2RS.With no turbochargersand less
cooling airflow required, theGT 3 RScan
instead put that air to workdelivering real
downforce.Crank the manually adjustable
rear wing to its most aggressivesetting
and the991.2 delivers 40 percent more
downforce than its predecessor.That’s a
mamassive step change in high-speed gripssive step change in high speed grip
and a lot of work has also been devoted to
making the car stable and aerodynamically
effective during high-speed braking.
The front end of the 991.1 directed
cooling air to its front brake discs, venting
high pressure air back out of the arches
through thegills atop the frontguards. This
latest car instead uses the front air intakes
to funnel air to the front diffuser, which
then hands it over across the flat floor to
the rear diffuser. Brake cooling is handled
bythose NACAducts punchedinto the
bonnet, which create tumbling air vortices
that draw fast-moving air into the scoops,
overcoming a problem of early recessed
scoop designs where they could only draw in
elatively slow-moving boundary layer air.
There’s a pair of three-part turning vanes
ead of the front tyres that reduce drag and
d turbulent air down the underside of
ar outboard of the diffusers. The wider
guards and sculpted front wheels direct