Hardcore new 911 variant generates more downforce than the GT3 Cup racer, but does it also generate fun?
Midway through 2020, photos emerged of a prototype sports car bearing an inconceivably large rear aerofoil. At the time, we were unsure whether this machine was an incoming version of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS undergoing testing, or indeed a test bed for one of the race cars. In a way, the latter seemed likelier. The wing was colossal.As it happens, this prototype was, in fact, a road car and the finished article is before you now. The GT3 RS of the 992 generation is the most ambitious 911 yet intended for the public. As is tradition at Weissach, it is an evolution of the Porsche 911 GT3. The difference this time around is that so capable, advanced and searingly quick is the GT3 that many of us wondered how much room Porsche had left itself for manoeuvre for an RS. As we’ll soon detail, Porsche’s approach wasn’t more power or weight-saving but brute downforce. And boy would this car seem to deliver in that regard. The GT3 RS makes three times more downforce than the GT3. Extraordinarily, it is said to generate a similar degree of downforce to the rarefied GTE-class RSR when Porsche’s top-billing race 911 is in Le Mans trim. It is the first GT3 RS to use active aero elements at both ends and the first in which the quest for downforce extends even to the profile of the suspension wishbones. This car also marks the debut of new in-cockpit controls for the dampers and differential. Clearly, the new GT3 RS sets out to redefine the track-day 911. On paper it is a fascinating machine and in the flesh looks wilder than even serial owners of previous GT3 RS iterations could have predicted. But is it all too much? Has Porsche sacrificed everything to achieve ultimate lap time, or have Andreas Preuninger and his team somehow crafted a car of truly unprecedented focus but also genuine, 911-style breadth and usability? Time to find out.The Porsche 911 range at a glanceModelsPowerFromCarrera380bhp£97,000Carrera 4380bhp£103,000Carrera T380bhp£107,700Carrera S444bhp£110,000Carrera 4S444bhp£116,000Carrera 4 GTS473bhp£128,000Turbo573bhp£159,000Turbo S641bhp£180,600GT3503bhp£146,400GT3 RS518bhp£192,600S/T518bhp£231,600Gt3 R racing car558bhp€613,000Even ignoring the Porsche 911 Dakar and Turbo-engined Sport Classic, the current 911 line-up is enormously broad. The GT3 RS is the most track-oriented, and with Porsche struggling to homologate a version of the GT2 RS for the 992, it’s possible it will remain that this, although nothing is certain.
