I didn’t get to drive it at the Nürburgring, but the Yas Marina F1 circuit in Abu Dhabi made a fitting playground to explore the car’s talents. The GT3 RS is not Zuffenhausen’s most powerful car but it is the one to which the most enthusiastic Porsche adherents are drawn, the ones who want their driving experience raw and unfiltered. For pure driving pleasure and emotion it is only matched by its smaller brother, the Cayman 718 GT4, which is powered by the same engine.
On Yas Marina’s curves the GT3 RS displayed why it is a pure driving machine. It is a car of soaring ability and charisma. Like the standard GT3 it redlines at 9,000rpm and has a emotive wail that can wake the dead, and the sound never gets old. The engine’s strong torque doesn’t require such high revs to generate decent pace, but you keep it in that zone just to hear that motor’s music — which still makes the hair on my arms stand up as I write this.
The other standout is the downforce, which gives the car amazing traction in high-speed corners. Porsche provided a Cayman GT4 RS to drive around Yas Marina for comparison, and the difference was palpable. Where the GT4 RS was more playful and skittish on the limits, the GT3 RS gripped with rail-like composure with its superior downforce.
The GT3 RS is more forgiving, which was comforting when trying to avoid the barriers at Yas Marina while exploring the car’s handling limits. With its outrageous noise and poise, it’s a thrilling driving experience.
You can specify forged alloy wheels that are 8kg lighter than the standard ones. An optional Weissach package gives a raw carbon-weave finish to various body parts, and makes some suspension components out of carbon fibre reinforced plastic to further sharpen up the dynamics.
My favourite feature of the Weissach package were the PDK shift paddles with motorsport-derived magnet technology, which gives gear shifts a more noticeable “click”.
A Clubsport pack is a no-cost option and adds a roll cage, six-point safety harness and fire extinguisher.
Including a three-year/100,000km Driveplan, the Porsche GT3 RS is yours for R4,858,000.
FIRST DRIVE | Taming the Porsche 911 GT3 RS at Yas Marina circuit
The GT3 RS is the most uncompromising and track-focused version of the Porsche 911. It is the antithesis of a friendly and sensible day-to-day sports car and was made with the sole purpose of lapping circuits as quickly as possible, and to look and sound angry.
The standard GT3 is no shrinking violet but even it looks almost demure next to the racy RS, which is festooned with air vents and aggressive aero devices, including the largest wing yet to perch on a road-legal 911’s tail. It is higher than the car’s roof and has a Formula One-inspired drag reduction system that opens to improve top speed, but when you brake hard the DRS closes the wing to turn it into a large air brake. It all happens automatically, but the driver can also control it by a DRS button on the steering wheel.
Further aero trickery includes air intake vents in the bonnet and ahead of the rear wheels, giving the new GT3 RS an impressive 409kg of downforce at 200km/h — double that of its predecessor and three times as much as the current GT3.
The brakes are bigger, the track is wider and the suspension has been upgraded, while the car is kept to a relatively low 1,450kg weight by means of carbon fibre doors, front wings, bonnet and roof.
The 4.0l six-cylinder naturally aspirated boxer engine is tweaked to push out 386kW and 465Nm — 11kW more and 5Nm less than the standard GT3.
All this has resulted in this most hard-core 911 lapping the Nürburgring Nordschleife in a time of 6:49.328 minutes, making it the third-quickest production car around the famous German circuit.
Drivers can set their own suspension adjustments from the steering wheel, along with the level of limited-slip differential intervention.
A shorter final-drive ratio boosts acceleration in all seven gears. While it reduces top speed in the RS to 296km/h from the standard GT3’s 319km/h, the 3.2 second 0-100km/h time is a 0.2 second improvement.
I didn’t get to drive it at the Nürburgring, but the Yas Marina F1 circuit in Abu Dhabi made a fitting playground to explore the car’s talents. The GT3 RS is not Zuffenhausen’s most powerful car but it is the one to which the most enthusiastic Porsche adherents are drawn, the ones who want their driving experience raw and unfiltered. For pure driving pleasure and emotion it is only matched by its smaller brother, the Cayman 718 GT4, which is powered by the same engine.
On Yas Marina’s curves the GT3 RS displayed why it is a pure driving machine. It is a car of soaring ability and charisma. Like the standard GT3 it redlines at 9,000rpm and has a emotive wail that can wake the dead, and the sound never gets old. The engine’s strong torque doesn’t require such high revs to generate decent pace, but you keep it in that zone just to hear that motor’s music — which still makes the hair on my arms stand up as I write this.
The other standout is the downforce, which gives the car amazing traction in high-speed corners. Porsche provided a Cayman GT4 RS to drive around Yas Marina for comparison, and the difference was palpable. Where the GT4 RS was more playful and skittish on the limits, the GT3 RS gripped with rail-like composure with its superior downforce.
The GT3 RS is more forgiving, which was comforting when trying to avoid the barriers at Yas Marina while exploring the car’s handling limits. With its outrageous noise and poise, it’s a thrilling driving experience.
You can specify forged alloy wheels that are 8kg lighter than the standard ones. An optional Weissach package gives a raw carbon-weave finish to various body parts, and makes some suspension components out of carbon fibre reinforced plastic to further sharpen up the dynamics.
My favourite feature of the Weissach package were the PDK shift paddles with motorsport-derived magnet technology, which gives gear shifts a more noticeable “click”.
A Clubsport pack is a no-cost option and adds a roll cage, six-point safety harness and fire extinguisher.
Including a three-year/100,000km Driveplan, the Porsche GT3 RS is yours for R4,858,000.
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