Crown

That tail is the silliest looking appendage on a car I have seen in a long time. Really, to drive around public streets with that monstrosity attached to the rear makes a statement about the driver. Does he/she also wear a helmet, a flame suit with gloves? It really is pathetic.

Sorry Porsche Jeck, I had to vent. I am sure you will love the car. Just try to keep at the track so as not to look foolish on the public roads. Clearly you will have nothing over the ricers.

nberry:

Sorry Porsche Jeck, I had to vent. I am sure you will love the car. Just try to keep at the track

Hahaha, "keeping on the track" is indeed essential if one wants to avoid the sad view of bent metal on the Eifel roller coaster  And believe it or not, the wing helps a lot in this regard
As for public roads: IMHO this car is a complete waste on public roads (except for some nice and empty winding country roads in the middle of nowhere) - it belongs on the track

I never ever would drive a RS in the city - I'd feel too much sympathy for the poor car

public roads: Porsche 987 S Seal/Cocoa, toll road  : Porsche 997 GT3 Arctic/Black

First Drive: 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS...

Has Porsche kept its promise to make the new GT3 RS entirely distinct from the standard GT3?

In spades. It costs £104,841, some £19,277 more than the GT3 but it is so much more than the slightly sharper focussed, more track oriented car that the last RS was to the previous GT3. Brake specification apart, there is not a single area of dynamic endeavour that has not been extensively modified to turn the GT3 into this GT3 RS and the net result is a car that genuinely deserves to be thought of as a model apart.

Go on then…

Starting at the back, this is the first RS to have more power than its equivalent GT3. By using a special engine cover forcing air into a conical (rather than cylindrical) ram intake and an inlet manifold shortened and tuned for power rather than torque the output of the 3.8-litre flat six has been raised from 435bhp to 450bhp. Torque remains the same 317lb ft but is now developed 500rpm further up the rev range at 6750rpm. To save weight, the entire exhaust system is now titanium.

As with all motorsports products, paddle shift PDK transmissions are eschewed in favour of a short-throw six speed manual, but for the RS all ratios have been reduced, first to fifth by 11 per cent, sixth by five per cent. Quirkily this means the GT3 actually has the higher top speed: 194mph versus 192mph. On the 0-62mph sprint, the RS beats the GT3 by a scant tenth of a second, taking 4sec dead.

As before the RS has a 44mm wider body and a 30mm wider rear track but for the first time the front track has also been widened, by 12cm, and wider wheels (9J x 19”) with fatter tyres fitted (245/35ZR19). Under the skin there are split rear wishbones for finer track tuning, bespoke (and adjustable) anti-roll bars, a more track oriented tune for its dampers and, for the first time on any RS, race specification stability control to complement the carry over traction control, both of which can be entirely disabled.

Visually a new aerodynamic package can be seen, with a deep rubber front splitter balancing the vast, adjustable carbon fibre rear wing. Together they can exert 170kg of downforce on the RS at 186mph.

So is it all worth it?

Not unless you’re going to drive it like your pants on are fire. For most people, even die-hard enthusiasts, the standard GT3 will be all the 911 they will ever want. Indeed if you drive the RS merely very fast you will ponder the value of the extra money especially when the quieter, more comfortable GT3 is a substantially more usable car. But if you can find the right road or, more likely, track, it will take you places to which not even a GT3 has access. The power delivery, the available performance and the balance of mechanical and aerodynamic grip make it unquestionably the greatest 911 of the modern era. It is one of a tiny number of cars capable of removing the power of speech from even the most grizzled of motoring hacks. In a word, it is sublime.

(Article by Andrew Frankel, GT Porsche) 

Porsche 911 GT3 RS

Engine: 3797cc, flat six, normally aspirated
Max Power: 450bhp @ 7900rpm
Max Torque: 317lb ft @ 6750rpm
Weight: 1370kg
Transmission: six-speed manual, two-wheel drive
Max Speed: 192mph
0-62mph: 4.0 seconds
Price as Tested: £104,841 

2010-Porsche-911-GT3-RS_GT-Porsche-Link

FIrst-Drive: 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS...

Test date: 9 February 2010

What is it?

You need to ask? Porsche has helpfully scrawled the model name across the front and rear arches in massive script. Okay, so this is the latest 911 GT3 RS – the gen-2 997, meaning a 3.8-litre block with vario-cam.

As before, the RS gets wider rear arches than the regular GT3, and a plexiglass rear window. But this time Porsche has gone further, answering critcism that (in road trim) the two models weren’t different enough.

So there is more punch from the engine. 444bhp, a 15bhp gain. And for the first time, the 44mm-wider rear body is accompanied by a 26mm extension to the front. There are many other detailed changes, which we’ll come to later.

What’s it like?

As always when driving a GT3 RS, it is difficult to concentrate on anything else. Not because it is especially demanding, in many ways it is a surprisingly easy car to drive, but because it is so all-consuming.

There is the noise, a wonderful mixture of mechanical whirs and induction gasps. Next to the GT3, not only do you hear more (because of that rear window), but also the sound is different. The RS gets a titanium exhaust (lighter and with different resonant properties), and uses a single-mass flywheel (also lighter). Together they produce a more irregular, unsettled idle, and a faster throttle response.

But it is the feel of the thing that makes the GT3 such a spectacularly enjoyable car to drive (even more so in RS trim). Personally I think it has one of the best steering systems of any car on sale today - feelsome, accurate and with ideal weighting, whatever the corner speed. Does it steer and more sweetly than the regular GT3? Without driving the two back to back on the same road it is difficult to be categorical, but from where I’m sitting today I’d say so. There’s just a fraction more feel and confidence and feel on turn-in, especially through the faster stuff.

At 1370kg, the RS saves 25kg over the GT3. Why not more? Because the weight-saving measures have to first clawback the mass added by the extra bodywork and wider wheels; the RS runs an extra 10mm on the front and 20mm on the rear.

To get down to that that weight involves careful options selection, though, because you need to do without air-con (20kg) and the stereo (6kg), and fork out for ceramic brakes (20kg), and the lightweight bucket seats (not cheap, at £3064). Do all this and you’ll have the exact specification of GT3 RS shown here.

For the truly committed, doing away with the bi-xenon headlamps saves a further 6kg, while an optional lithium-ion battery sheds 10kg.

So on the occasions when it’s possible to use everything the 3.8-litre motorsport engine has to offer, does 15bhp make a difference? On paper the RS is more accelerative than the GT3, but only fractionally (there’s just 0.1sec in it from rest to 100mph). In reality you’d be hard pushed to tell two apart in pure performance, but in character they perform slightly differently. The extra power comes not as a result of changes to the engine internals, but a more efficient induction kit and higher compression ratio.

The flipside is that the maximum torque, although identical, is produced at higher revs in the RS. So you have to work a little harder for the performance. But the payoffs are greater, because over the final 1000rpm the RS sings that little bit more sweetly.

To balance the additional drag produced by the RS’s overdeveloped aero package (which produces 170kg of downforce at 186mph, or around double that of the GT3), Porsche has dropped the standard gear ratios.

In doing so Porsche has, perhaps inadvertently, solved one of the regular GT3’s main drawbacks as a road car: exceptionally long gearing. Second is still good for 77mph and third 106mph, but presented with a temptingly brilliant road, you end up using more of the rev range and more ratios.

The grip levels are so high that realistically, on the road, you’re only ever going to get near the limit through the tightest turns. But do so, and contary to what you might expect, the RS proves easier to manage than the regular car. Because you have more front-end grip, it feels better balanced, with less understeer and more neutrality. And because the RS gets Porsche’s clever active engine mounts as standard, it better controls the mass of the engine and gearbox (270kg) in direction changes

Dynamically there is only one grumble: that the height of the brake pedal, combined with the effectiveness of PCCB, makes heel-and-toeing tricky at road speeds.

Should I buy one?

It would be easy to dismiss the GT3 RS as a trackday irrelevance. Many will be used as just that, their owners able to tinker with the infinitely adjustable suspension settings.

But the surprise here is that the GT3 RS is still a useable road car, and not by virtue of conceding just enough comfort and forgiveness to get by, but because it is a genuinely enjoyable and engaging to drive. The ride is hardly any less supple than the regular GT3, the firmer suspension counterbalanced against taller sidewalls.

Is it worth a £20k premium? We are into a diminishing margin of returns here. The regular GT3 is hardly what you’d call disappointing, and the premium represents another 25 per cent again. But if you can afford the extra, the RS is even better.

(Article by Jamie Corstorphine, Autocar)

2010-Porsche-911-GT3-RS_Autocar-link

2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS at Weissach...

 I am so tempted by this car ... just fabulous 

 997.2 C2S, PDK, -20mm

First Drive: Porsche 911 GT3 RS

Porsche's hardest charging, most focussed 911 yet proves to be a devastatingly effective road car...

Date: February 2010
Location: Nice, France

Porsche doesn't need to advertise the GT3; its racing activities put the lightweight machine directly in front of the right audience. The RS version even more so, Porsche's homologation version raising the bar higher than the already sensational GT3. In this iteration it's wider, has more power, shorter gear ratios and generates almost double the downforce of its lesser-stickered relative. It's quicker to 62mph too, if only 0.1 seconds so. At around £20,000 more it's significantly more expensive than the GT3, but it's well worth the extra.  

In the Metal

Today's RS takes the coloured-wheel and decaled look of the '73 original to a new, far more overt, level. You're left with no doubt that this isn't merely a GT3. New GT3 RS stickers trail up over the front wing behind the headlamp while its twin slides off its opposite rear wing. Add the chequered effect down the RS's flanks, new wheels, wing mirrors and a central front air intake coloured in the same opposing hue and the RS is far from subtle.

Look beyond the stickers though and the RS reveals more detailed changes over its GT3 relative. There's a massive new carbon fibre rear wing resting on aluminium struts, re-profiled air intakes and outlets in the front bumper, a longer front splitter, a revised engine cover, a plastic rear window and wider front and rear wings covering the RS's increased track. Inside, Clubsport specification is standard, so there's a cage and figure-hugging lightweight seats, along with RS specific items like lightweight door trims and pull straps in place of handles for opening the doors.

What you get for your Money

Less weight. That's always been what the RS is about and every kilo of weight the RS loses over its GT3 relative costs you around £800. Underlining its hardcore focus you can have it without air conditioning and lose the stereo too, the weight purists able to go even further by binning the standard headlamps and their washers, adding even lighter fixed back sports seats and Porsche's PCCB carbon ceramic brakes. There's even the option of a lighter lithium ion battery that saves 10kg. Start getting too obsessive about the weight and you could quickly find yourself spending significantly more than the RS's £104,841 list price.

Notably, the RS gains power, albeit just 15bhp; raising the output from the 3.8-litre unit to 444bhp. The engine features a lighter single-mass flywheel and the gearbox comes with revised, shorter ratios, bringing the 0-62mph time down to four seconds dead, though thanks to its substantially increased downforce a standard GT3 betters the RS's 192mph top speed.

Driving it

With that rev-hungry 3.8-litre flat-six having just 1,370kg to shift it'll come as no surprise that the RS is rapid. It's difficult initially to see quite where the differences lie between it and the GT3, but time with it reveals the harder, even purer focus of the RS. The first thing that is apparent is how much noisier it is. The RS's engine chunters away like a race car at idle and the exhaust note is different thanks to both the GT3 RS's freer breathing titanium exhaust system and the differing resonance that occurs inside thanks to the RS's plastic rear window.

You'll barely hear the engine and exhaust on the move though, as your senses are overloaded with other information. Specifically through the steering wheel, the Alcantara rimmed sports wheel offering just about the best combination of weighting, accuracy and feedback possible. There's no slack in the system, the RS's nose going exactly where you want it once there's some heat in the wide, lightly treaded Michelin Pilot Sport tyres. The wider track at the front makes itself evident with an even keener turn in, and a greater resistance to understeer. Indeed, it'll be a seriously ham-fisted driver, or one with cold tyres in the wet, who breaches the front end grip of the RS at road speeds.

The rear feels similarly planted, Porsche's suspension engineers managing to enable the track-focussed RS to ride with quite astonishing composure on its unique PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) settings. It's certainly taut, but it's rarely if ever harsh. That allows you to carry the so easily gained pace with ridiculous ease, the RS demonstrating ably on tortuously twisty and sometimes shockingly surfaced roads that it's not merely a smooth track-only machine.

The brakes provide the expected incredible stopping power, though the middle pedal's positioning is a touch high for easy, everyday heel and toe downshifts. The gearbox in our test car didn't always shift with the sort of mechanical precision we'd like, the second to third change in particular feeling a touch tight - though we'd expect that to loosen out as more miles roll under the RS's lightweight single nut wheels.

You need to use the gearbox more too, as Porsche's engineers have shortened the first five ratios by around 11% and altered the sixth by 5% for greater sprinting ability. Combine that with the faster revving engine and you're busy with the gearstick, but that's all part of the RS's unique appeal. Stability and traction control systems come as standard, their effect subtle and switchable, but it's a brave or otherworldly talented driver who'll switch everything off on a wet road with those special tyres lacking heat - or much in the way of tread. In the dry the RS will do anything you ask of it, whether you're after eye-widening precision at speed through long sweepers, or show-off power oversteer exiting tighter bends.

Worth Noting

Apparently the GT3 RS produces 170kg of positive downforce at 186mph, which is four times as much as its predecessor. All that downforce, its extra sprinting ability and the slight increase in power allow it to lap the Nürburgring in 7 minutes 33 seconds. That's a whole seven seconds quicker than the standard GT3 and just one second slower than the Carrera GT supercar.

Hardcore, but not overly compromised as a result, though if you want to avoid costly sounding scrapes at driveway entrances or over traffic calming speed-bumps then the optional nose lifting kit is a sensible addition.

Summary

Small but significant tweaks distance the new 911 GT3 RS from its GT3 sibling, though not at the expense of usability. It's hard to justify the price premium when looked at rationally, but a drive underlines the RS's clearer focus, sharper steering response and even more eager engine. It's a very special car.

(Article by Kyle Fortune, Car Enthusiast)

A few more pics of the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS...

"THE BAD AND GOOD OF MONKEY'S DAY IN A GT3 RS"

Date: 11 February 2010
Posted By: Monkey Harris 

Any day that begins with someone handing you the keys to a GT3 RS can rightly be considered a good day. And so it was, when the man from Porsche did just that.

Then the day went wrong. A blizzard hit the Cannes area, like it does every 2000 years. I had the definitive fast-road machine, access to the definitive fast roads, and I spent five hours sitting in a ****ing traffic jam. It was so unbelievably frustrating (as anyone who follows me on Twiter will already know) that it was almost funny.

Two events saved me from losing my marbles. The first was our escape from blizzard-strewn Cannes. Snapper Chris Rutter turned Sapper and scouted the A8, which had a barrier down closing it to all traffic. But we’d seen an elderly local-type drive straight around it, and feeling de-mob-happy through frustration, we slithered the Porsche’s hips around the barrier and skidded onto the A8. It was deserted. Apart from the odd stranded truck, we had the place to ourselves. I’ve driven that stretch of road hundreds of times: it’s always packed and almost always sunny –hence it being called the Autoroute de Soleil- and it just felt so foreign.

So we stopped and took a few snaps of the Porsche in those strange surroundings. And left before we were arrested.

In five hours we didn’t get above 60mph. That’s criminal in an RS.

Still, musn’t grumble, you see I’m going to have plenty of seat time in an RS over the coming months: I’m driving one at the Nurburgring 24hrs this year and (I’m pinching myself and grinning like a school child typing this), my team mate is called Walter Rohrl. For that opportunity, I’d happily spend hours – months even - dawdling about a snowy Cote D’Azur.

(Blog by Chris Harris, Evo magazine with additional pictures from Chris Harris, Twitter)

 7.33 NBR?

7s faster than regular GT3?

That make the RS the car to get no?

Porsche-Jeck:

I never ever would drive a RS in the city - I'd feel too much sympathy for the poor car

 
Haha  Here in London, I was pleasantly surprised to see an investment banker commuting to the office in a froggy green 997.1 GT3 RS  We British are truly mad when it comes to cars 

 
RT Moderator - 997.1 Carrera S GT Silver/Cocoa, -20mm/LSD, PSE, short shifter, SportDesign rims, Zuffenhausen collection

2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS...

(14 February 2010)

This new Porsche 911 GT3 RS is not the most powerful 911 you can buy, nor the fastest. Nor is it the most expensive or lavishly equipped. What it is, is the most exciting road car Porsche has made. Like most of the best Porsches, this stripped-out, ultra-light supercar embraces the doctrine that less is more. It has no back seats, the rear screen is Perspex and the interior door handles are cord. Sound insulation is notable by its absence. Flappy paddles? Turbochargers? Four-wheel-drive systems? Nope. Even the cupholders have gone.

If you want options, you can lose the stereo and air-con at no cost (how generous) to save a few more precious grams. A lithium-ion battery will save you 10kg. A roll cage, plumbing for a fire extinguisher and flame-resistant upholstery are standard.

The GT3 RS can truly call itself a race car for the road. Indeed many of its features, such as the fully adjustable suspension and reworked aerodynamics, are geared towards competition. The 3.8-litre flat-six engine — like the rest of the car — is built by Porsche’s motor-sports department, not alongside normal, stockbroker-spec 911s. It has an air induction system that helps it to put out an extra 15bhp, and the gear ratios have been lowered to pep up the acceleration.

For £86,064 Porsche will build you a normal GT3, which most drivers would love for the rest of time. The RS costs almost £20,000 more. It seems a lot for a little, but then this is a car for fanatics. It doesn’t address the open road like most cars; it prefers to attack it. The engine is loud and sharp enough in your ears to make you feel like a fighter pilot. The delivery of its performance is not effortless like a 911 Turbo’s — the GT3 RS makes you work hard to keep up with its appetite for gears. You have only to point it at a bend to know the RS’s real home is the track: the grip from its semi-race-tread Michelin tyres is as magnificent on a dry road as it is scarily deficient in the wet. If this car were a battlefield general, it wouldn’t even know what a prisoner was.

Having driven both, I can confirm a standard GT3 does 97% of the job the RS does, for 80% of the money. But of course you want Porsche’s ultimate driving machine, and this is it. The experience it offers is unforgettable. This is Porsche at it best.

Porsche 911 GT3 RS: 

Engine: 3797cc, six cylinders
Power: 444bhp @ 7900rpm
Torque: 317 lb ft @ 6750rpm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Acceleration: 0-62mph: 4sec
Top speed: 193mph
Fuel / CO2: 21.4mpg / 314g/km
Price: £104,841
Verdict: The ultimate Porsche, full stop
Rating: ***** (5 stars) 

(Article by Andrew Frankel for The Sunday Times)

damn....am getting one! Not sure how many are selling worlwide...probably not many.

Dubai which had the best selling showroom is barely selling a car....GT2s are offered at silly prices but are they comparable?

Am curious to know rennteamer's views on whether to purchase a new 2010-2011 GT3RS or a second hand GT2 (for nealy the same price)

Have test driven a GT2 yesterday and was impressed by the power and stiffness of the car but feel the RS has more to offer. I do not necessarly track cars (although I should start) but I clearly drive (more than) passionately.

Thanks for putting all those articles together Boxster Coupe GTS, much appreciated!

Yes thank you. It is captivating

Slow In, Fast Out

Boxster Coupe GTS:

"THE BAD AND GOOD OF MONKEY'S DAY IN A GT3 RS"

Date: 11 February 2010
Posted By: Monkey Harris 

Any day that begins with someone handing you the keys to a GT3 RS can rightly be considered a good day. And so it was, when the man from Porsche did just that.

Then the day went wrong. A blizzard hit the Cannes area, like it does every 2000 years. I had the definitive fast-road machine, access to the definitive fast roads, and I spent five hours sitting in a ****ing traffic jam. It was so unbelievably frustrating (as anyone who follows me on Twiter will already know) that it was almost funny.

Two events saved me from losing my marbles. The first was our escape from blizzard-strewn Cannes. Snapper Chris Rutter turned Sapper and scouted the A8, which had a barrier down closing it to all traffic. But we’d seen an elderly local-type drive straight around it, and feeling de-mob-happy through frustration, we slithered the Porsche’s hips around the barrier and skidded onto the A8. It was deserted. Apart from the odd stranded truck, we had the place to ourselves. I’ve driven that stretch of road hundreds of times: it’s always packed and almost always sunny –hence it being called the Autoroute de Soleil- and it just felt so foreign.

So we stopped and took a few snaps of the Porsche in those strange surroundings. And left before we were arrested.

In five hours we didn’t get above 60mph. That’s criminal in an RS.

Still, musn’t grumble, you see I’m going to have plenty of seat time in an RS over the coming months: I’m driving one at the Nurburgring 24hrs this year and (I’m pinching myself and grinning like a school child typing this), my team mate is called Walter Rohrl. For that opportunity, I’d happily spend hours – months even - dawdling about a snowy Cote D’Azur.

(Blog by Chris Harris, Evo magazine with additional pictures from Chris Harris, Twitter)

 

 A quick clip of Chris Harris driving the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS...

2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS First Drive

“Think the GT3 Is Serious? Prepare To Think Again”

- by Andrew Frankel, Contributor

Published: 16 February 2010

There is probably only one person on the planet who considered the last Porsche 911 GT3 RS a kindergarten car, but he is the person who mattered most. That would be Andreas Preuninger, manager of Porsche's department of high-performance cars, the man charged with creating the RS's replacement.

Preuninger has directed the GT3 program since the model was launched in 1999, and he and the handful of race engineers who are in charge of developing the 911 GT3 RS, 911 GT3 and 911 Porsche Cup models were stung by complaints from customers that the previous-generation 911 GT3 RS offered an insufficient margin of track-tough performance over the already fairly feisty standard GT3.

So Preuninger and his team of happy helpers at Porsche's motorsports division in Stuttgart went to work to make sure the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS would never suffer such criticism.

And when those guys go to work, they go to work.

Speed Engineering

We could tell you about every last detail that has transformed the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 into the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, but if you're like us, you're more interested in driving one than building one.

But we should tell you that the RS model now has more power than the GT3 equivalent, which means 450 horsepower at 7,900 rpm instead of 435 hp at 7,600 rpm, and all this from a 3.8-liter six-cylinder engine without a turbo in sight. As before, a short-throw six-speed manual transmission is the standard gearbox (there are some delightfully old-fashioned views about shift paddles and automated transmissions inside Porsche's motorsport department), but the first five gears have ratios that are 11 percent shorter and 6th gear has a ratio that's 5 percent. As a result, the 192-mph top speed of the GT3 RS is slower than that of the GT3, yet only by 2 mph.

An RS typically has a wider rear track for more cornering grip, but now the front track is wider, too. There are 325/30ZR19 tires in the rear on rims that are 12 inches wide and 245/35R19 tires in the front on rims that are 9 inches wide. There's also a wider range of adjustment for the front and rear antiroll bars, so you can fine-tune the RS's handling for the track. Stability control has been included for the first time on a GT3 RS, although it's calibrated for the track and can be disabled independent of the traction control. The only major mechanical items left untouched are the GT3's massive brakes, which were developed from the start with RS levels of performance in mind.

The 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS carries an all-new aerodynamics package for the track-oriented environment it's intended to live in, with a yet-larger carbon-fiber rear wing that now generates 374 pounds of downforce at 186 mph — and this is real downforce, not just reduced lift. The bodywork has been widened at the rear by 1.7 inches to accommodate the RS model's customary wider rear track, and now of course the front bodywork is wider to suit the increased front track as well.

The RS is 55 pounds lighter than the GT3, a total achieved ounce by ounce thanks to a plastic rear window, lightweight door panels, a titanium exhaust system, a single-mass flywheel and a carbon-fiber engine cover. If you want to reduce weight even further, you can go to the RS's options list, which includes carbon-fiber seats, bi-xenon headlights and a delete code for the radio and air-conditioning. All in all, the RS weighs 3,020 pounds or, put another way, a little less than a two-door VW GTI but with well over twice the power.

Quite Quick, Then?

Yes, but that's hardly the point. If all you're interested in is straight-line performance on par with an artillery shell, buy the 2010 Porsche 911 Turbo. It's faster still than the GT3 RS and way more civilized. 

Ever since 1973, RS models of the 911 have been about total performance, not just acceleration or even just braking and cornering. The RS is also about how the car sounds and feels, and the 2010 example carries this principle further than ever. Hard to believe though it might be, the ability of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS to hit 60 mph from a standstill in 4 seconds flat is, in fact, the least impressive aspect of its performance.

Thanks to those titanium exhaust pipes and the plastic rear window, the engine sounds as if it's joined you in the cabin, and after you've wanged it to the 8,500 rpm redline a few times you might start to wonder just how sensible it is to deploy a weapon like this on a public road. There are more addictive substances than this, but all must be taken internally.

Cheek-Rippling Grip

It is through the corners that the 2010 Porsche 911 RS is at its most epic and rewarding. It responds and feels like a racing car, because in all but name that is what it is. What other road car comes with an ignition cutoff, plumbing for a fire extinguisher and flame-retardant seat fabric as standard equipment? 

You'd expect the RS to corner flat and fast, but more surprising is the fact that this most extreme of 911s is so easy to drive on the limit. Relative to a GT3, you really notice the extra grip at the front in slow corners and the stabilizing influence of the big wing in quicker curves. No prizes for guessing that this car is faster point to point than a GT3, but discovering that it is better balanced and clearly easier to drive is a genuine revelation. No doubt it's this confidence that enables the GT3 RS to lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife in the same time as the exotic, mid-engine 611-hp 2003 Porsche Carrera GT.

Even so, once you've parked, returned the keys and gotten your breath back, the most enduring memory of the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS is not what it does but how it does it. This is one of those rare and precious machines that makes you think its engineers were thinking of you when they designed it. The expert matching of the effort levels for all the major controls — steering, gearshift and pedals — suggests a level of attention to detail that borders on the obsessive. The steering is what you remember most, as it conveys so lucidly all the information you want about the road surface while filtering out all the kickback you do not.

All Good, Then?

Not for everyone. The 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS is a finely honed tool, best used for narrowly defined tasks usually involving a racetrack and driving like your pants are on fire. And to a very great extent, this removes it from the real world. 

There's no escaping the fact that by any standards the normal Porsche 911 GT3 is an outstanding driving machine, yet it is sufficiently quiet and comfortable to be used every day, something only a true eccentric would consider in the harder, louder, rawer RS. Then there's the small matter of the $20,600 price gulf between them.

So Herr Preuninger's stated aim to put clear air between the GT3 and its RS offshoot has met with success. The best way to look at them is to think of the GT3 as a devastating street car that's also extremely adept on the track, and think of the GT3 RS as a street-legal track car with all the good and bad that entails.

But for those who believe that a Porsche should be about driving first and everything else second, the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS is not just the greatest car that Porsche makes but also one of the greatest it has ever made. In an era in which carmakers think nothing of exhuming model names from the past to help prop up rather more lame products of today, it's good to see Porsche not simply doing justice to its illustrious heritage, but adding to it, too.

2010-Porsche-911-GT3-RS_Inside-Line

Boxter, great job.... keep them coming 

Any more videos from the reviews?

DRIVEN: PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS

The return of Porsche's homologation special means sleepless nights for Adam Towler...

(16 February 2010) 

So here it is, the moment many of us have been waiting for: Porsche's homologation special returns, squeaking its way across the blindingly clean workshop floor of the Weissach Motorsport department and out into the wide world.

It is, according to its instigator Andreas Preuninger - head of the GT department at Porsche - a "car that a guy must see an advert for, and then not be able to sleep that night". I'd go along with that: the night before I drove it I couldn't sleep. It is also claimed to differentiate more from the standard GT3 than the Gen 1 version did (along with a seven seconds faster 'Ring time), but at £104,841 it is also £18,777 more expensive than a standard GT3, a car that, it should be remembered, is already sublime.

As with the previous 997 (Gen 1) RS, the new car uses the 44mm wider body from the Turbo/four-wheel drive Carrera models, but now teamed with extensions around the front wheels too, allowing Porsche to increase the front tyre contact patch.

Engine and chassis, weight-loss and aero: those are the three main areas of development. For the former, Porsche has carried over the new 3.8-litre motor from the regular GT3, but there are a few changes to take the power up to 450hp (from 435hp).

Chiefly, these involve a whole new air intake system breathing through two enlarged ram air intakes on the engine lid, the ECU is remapped, there's a modified titanium exhaust, and a further 1kg has been machined off the single-mass flywheel compared to the old car. Compared to the GT3 the dampers are new and the anti-roll bars revised, while PADM active engine mounts are standard fit, as is PASM suspension and full stability and traction control.

RS weight is quoted at 1,370kg (with full fluids), some 25kg less than a regular GT3 and around 80kg more than a GT3 Cup race car. However, to get to that figure you need to specify the carbon ceramic brake option and the lightweight seats, as well as leaving out air conditioning. The test car we drive is to this full lightweight spec, or as Preuninger says, "how we like it".

Porsche's problem is that for every kilo they save, others are being put back in. For starters, the wider body is heavier, there's the Clubsport cage, and the Gen 2 911s have more weight in the nose due to increased crash protection. In response, Porsche has the single nut lightweight wheels, a plastic rear 'screen, a composite engine cover and the carbon fibre rear wing. Then you factor in the carbon buckets, the ceramics, the optional lightweight battery (-10kg).

You can also leave out any form of stereo, as in this car (-4kg if its PCM3), and I would have suggested the deletion of xenon lights. But apparently the extra weight of these is pretty much all down to the extra fluid in the larger washer reservoir that legislation demands, and you need them for fast night driving according to the boss, so simply run them dry.

Porsche has also tried harder with the little details this time around: there is no sound deadening in the roof on the RS, there are no internal door handles (just red pull cords) and even the cup holders have been deleted from the dash (saving 300gms!).

Most obvious are the changes to the aerodynamics, with the addition of the Cup-style front splitter and the rear wing, closely related to that on the RSR and the new R. At full chat the new RS produces 170kg of downforce, or put another way, at 100mph it produces the same amount of downforce as the Gen 1 RS did flat out.

Today, on the tight mountain roads in southern France, that may not be so important. All of the above tech talk is great, but the thing that really grabs you by the undercarriage is the feel and emotion of this car. It's just so responsive, so precise and analogue, so pure in feel. That sound too - reverberating off the mountainside from over a mile away - exotic, granite-edged and rising to a pitch and volume where it seems the engine must burst apart.

The moment you fire it up the noise drills into the cockpit, the flywheel clattering away like an old taxi idling. The alcantara 'wheel and gear knob feel just right in the hands, with the former connected to an outstanding steering system full of feel and of ideal weighting: the latter, like the regular GT3, has a really sturdy, mechanical mechanism that comes into its own when you're changing gear at high revs. It's not the most relaxing car to drive in traffic, but then again neither is it uncomfortable - if anything it rides slightly better than a stock GT3 due to tyre and suspension subtleties.

Prod the throttle and you notice another difference with the RS - the lower final drive and a shorter sixth gear certainly make the car more responsive, although for UK use they could be shorter still. Hold it to the floor and the RS will sing 'round to 8,500rpm, with performance as ferocious as you'd expect.

The extra front-end grip and that superb steering give you loads of confidence turning into corners, and of course, in the dry the grip is prodigious: as you might expect on Pilot Sport Cups, at zero degrees with a dusting of snow it all becomes a bit tricky. The ceramic brakes have incredible retardation, but the pedal seemed slightly high on this particular car, making any heel and toeing difficult unless you were pushing on the pedal very hard.

Still, so much of this car has been tailored for the track, so it would be wrong to claim this is a full review based on a day charging at mountain hairpins and another watching giant snow flakes idly collecting on that outrageous plank of a rear wing. That there seems excellent front end grip, allied with the confidence from that wonderful steering, and the aforementioned aero improvements, all point to greatness, but that remains to be seen.

So, while I might have eluded to something sensible earlier about 19 grand price differentials, whether you're standing five feet away from it, sat in it - or best of all - driving it, the RS delivers an Weissach-brewed adrenalin narcotic that blows away those practical arguments. May cars like this long continue to be made. Oh, and if you're not taken with the colours or the graphics, fork out another three grand and you can have what you want. Chartreuse Green perhaps?

2010-Porsche-911-GT3-RS_PistonHeads-link

Looking forward to some new GT3 RS videos! 

Here's a reminder of Andreas Preuninger's overview of the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS...

...turn up the volume! 

Here is the video from Autocar

2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS spotted in the wild...

Nice car, but this colour scheme is a little bit over the top.

The secret of life is to admire without desiring.

Boxster Coupe GTS:

2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS spotted in the wild...

 

 

Haha, very funny to see the guy "posing" on the Kö. Actually he's a Nordschleife regular  Will be interesting to ask him how he likes the car on the NoS compared to his 997 GT2 in which he did many many laps

public roads: Porsche 987 S Seal/Cocoa, toll road  : Porsche 997 GT3 Arctic/Black

Porsche-Jeck:

Haha, very funny to see the guy "posing" on the Kö. Actually he's a Nordschleife regular

That´s what I thought as well but since you know him he certainly has credibility to drive that car... even on the Kö!

Did you finally decide about the RS yourself?

 "Monsieur" Delecour certainly knows how to drive it...

Delecour drives the GT3 RS | evo

Francois Delecour gives Chris Harris a ride to remember in the Porsche 911 GT3 RS...

Chris Harris took the latest Porsche 911 GT3 RS to meet French rally legend Francois Delecour. This was the result. Read the full story in issue 142 of Evo magazine...

Porsche-911-GT3-RS_Chris-Harris_Francois-Delecour_Evo-video

Chris-Harris_Twitter-link

DuckieRS:

 "Monsieur" Delecour certainly knows how to drive it...

That guy is hilarious, that certainly made my day. Love Harris´ expression while Delecour states the engine iss fantastigue...

Great vid. Watched the whole thing twice

Slow In, Fast Out

Boxster Coupe GTS:

Looking forward to some new GT3 RS videos! 

Here's a reminder of Andreas Preuninger's overview of the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS...

 

...turn up the volume! 

  

And he even speaks much better English than most german politicians, incl. our foreign secretary.  

Yep, the GT3 RS is definitely the 911 to go for if you want to drive the sportiest street legal modern 911.

--

RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor 997 Turbo, BMW X5 M (on the ship), BMW M3 Cab DKG, Mini Cooper S JCW