First Impressions

Building on the already incredible 992-generation 911 GT3, Porsche is set to unleash a new iteration of their ultimate street-legal track weapon, the 911 GT3RS. 

And after our hot laps on the famous Silverstone racing circuit in England, we’re convinced that “RS” should stand for “Really Sticks”!  Sporting a 40% larger rear wing, fully encased underbody, a massive central radiator up front and increased wheel arch ventilation, the 911 GT3RS plants itself to the road with nearly 1900 pounds of downforce! That translates to crisper turn-in, higher cornering speeds, and loads more driver confidence.

Power is up slightly over the GT3, at 518. The four-liter natural-breathing flat six revs to the same 9000 RPM and powers the rear wheels only, by way of a 7-speed PDK gearbox. Lightweight glass, carbon fiber body panels, and redesigned  suspension components account for performance gains that go well beyond the raw numbers.

"Going out for our first hot laps in the 911 GT3RS here at Silverstone. Porsche chose this track to showcase the phenomenal downforce the GT3RS creates. As compared to the GT3, Porsche worked the aerodynamics as well as the thermodynamics of this car, channeling the hot radiator air to the outsides and away from the cool air engine intake.

We have active aero front and rear. The wing is always adjusting for max downforce or top speed depending on the g load in the car and driver input."

The drag reduction system can adjust the rear wing through its full 34-degree range of motion, on the fly, in just a third of a second. A two-piece front wing under the car moves in sync with the rear, and provides up to 80% more front downforce. An airbrake system kicks in to assist under heavy braking.

The GT3Rs has three available driving modes, and in the track setting, the driver can adjust rebound and compression both front and rear, as well as rear diff lock rate, all with rotary knobs on the steering wheel.

A near washout in the morning provided an exercise in high-speed hydroplane recovery, but even in the pouring rain, that massive downforce prevented a tense moment from becoming a disaster.

We finally got a mostly dry track to attack later in the day, capped off with a few laps riding shotgun with Ace Porsche racer Jorg Bergmeister for the full-on GT3RS experience.

"This is like the automotive equivalent of going to top gun school for a day. We’ve been driving the GT3RS at Silverstone, following a Porsche pro driver in a GT3, but he’ll also critique my driving with the telemetry, to see how good, or bad I did. We drove in the pouring rain earlier.. now it’s dryer, so we hopefully improved a little bit."

 We’ve driven countless 911’s on track, but rarely have we come away this impressed… not just with the awesome driving experience, but also the incremental gains over the so-called “standard” car.  And at the end of the day, the 911 GT3RS left us wanting for more.. not more performance, but more time behind the wheel! We’ll remedy that soon, and bring you more first impressions, right here at MotorWeek.