Test Porsche 911 GT3 RS: a racing car with a license plate

The 911 GT3 RS is the total machine, the most radical sports car that Porsche can put on the road. It inherits technology from Formula 1 and leaves you speechless with its wild 4.0-liter boxer engine with 525 HP of power.

I have had the opportunity to put the Porsche 911 GT3 RS to the test during our Test the Best, the event in which the main AUTO BILD headlines in Europe meet annually and analyze some of the best cars of the year.

As you can guess, the GT3 RS is one of them and it was the one that all of us there wanted to start with, as is logical.



Driving it is a privilege, because financially it is beyond the reach of all of us and because it is so exclusive that (very) rarely you will be able to see it on the street.

Its exterior appearance already tells you that this Porsche 911 is a car very, very close to the competition, but it has a license plate. Yes indeed.

GT3 RS: racing aerodynamics

The key, what really makes this car special, regardless of the engine or the chassis that I'm going to talk about now, is the aerodynamics. Everything is meticulously designed to double the vertical load: 860 kilos of downforce (405 kilos on the previous GT3 RS).

I am not going to reveal anything to you if I tell you that he benefits from the competition. For example, it inherits the central radiator from the 911 RSR. All of the front appendages direct air away from the body, because Porsche doesn't want hot air blowing over the car and ending up in the engine's air intake.

And yes, at the rear, all eyes are on the spoiler: it's not just any spoiler, it works like a Formula 1 DRS, which opens to allow you to run more on the straights (it also works as a speedbrake). And I was lucky enough to be able to test it in the oval of the Bridgestone test circuit in the surroundings of Rome (Italy) and it is amazing what it shows.

This is the 911 GT3 RS inside

Inside, the most striking of all are not the red cloth handles or the magnificent sports bucket seats, which offer a lot of lateral grip. Neither is the safety cage. Here the most striking thing is on the steering wheel, where you can modify many parameters of the chassis with four simple wheels (in true competition style).

Specifically, they allow you to choose the driving mode you prefer, the hardness of the suspension, the degree of intervention of the stability control and, craziest of all, the Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTV+), which allows you to lock the rear differential.

By the way, I told you about the roll cage and I didn't tell you that for the first time in a road car, if you choose the optional Weissach Package, it's made of carbon fiber. And because this material resists tensile forces in another way, it has a different shape, with a central lattice-like structure rather than the typical diagonal crossbars.

This is good even in practical terms, because this way you can access the rear space (obviously there are no seats in this GT3 RS version, which have been removed to save weight and to fit the roll bar), where you can put some small travel bags . No, this car is not for traveling, but you will have to wear your helmet and fireproof overalls somewhere when you go to a circuit, right?

Porsche 911 GT3 RS engine

And I haven't told you about the engine yet: of course, Porsche has assembled a 4.0-liter naturally aspirated boxer six-cylinder here, which revs without failing and delivers 525 hp. It is pure poetry. Full throttle and shifting with the paddles on the steering wheel is almost addictive.

And what about its sound... That racing roar surrounds you and suddenly you feel like you're on a cloud, as if time had stopped. And it is that, in fact, it is almost like that, because it takes just a breath (3.2 seconds) to get to 100 km/h.

This 911 GT3 RS is possibly one of the most exciting cars I've ever driven, if not the most, including some racing ones. With this you already get an idea of how it behaves dynamically.

The sensations that it transmits to you are so pure, so wild... And the connection with the car is so strong... that I can't get over my astonishment.

Dynamic test of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS

And, despite its aggressive appearance, it is not one of those cars with which it seems that you are going to have a heart attack in each corner because you feel that it is uncontrollable and you are going to lose control at the minimum. Perhaps to say that it is easy to drive is an exaggeration, but it is true that it makes it easy for you, it helps you fly low and almost, almost above your possibilities.

And what is to go crazy are the configuration possibilities that it allows you, since you can, for example, modify the compression of the suspension, both front and rear. Although for that you must previously select the Track mode in those magic wheels on the steering wheel that I was talking about before. Also, it has Normal and Sport modes.

It's amazing how it grips the asphalt in the turns. The speed and stability it has in the turns drive me crazy. It is as if my brain was not capable of processing so much speed at all times and at the same time it does not allow me to lift my right foot and I continue accelerating without stopping.

The test passes through my eyes as if I had put on virtual reality glasses and everything is magnified. But this is real!

Well, it's real, but I guarantee that for those of us who like cars it's like living a dream. And live it to the fullest. Because with this car, where with others you go at 150 km/h, here you do it at almost 200.

It has been impressive to have been able to squeeze all the qualities of a car like this on the circuit, a machine that makes you feel as if you were a real driver and from which the more you ask, the more it gives you... Its price (265,404 euros), In the end, it is an anecdote: it is worth every euro it costs. Thank you Porsche!

Conclusion

The best

Behavior, engine, performance, racing equipment.

Worst

Is there something negative to say? Well, I will say that it is not comfortable.

But who cares?

 

 

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