You will have understood: this new GT3 RS, generation 992, is not exactly a racing car. Why ? Simply becauseit is approved for the road.

The new RS embeds the entire package of a beast thought to jump on the curbs and chain the progressive braking. She is definitely not not one to confuse performance with 0 to 100, power level and maximum speed.

What counts, according to the GT3 RS, is the time established on the circuit. For this, in addition to a respectable power of 525 hp – only 15 hp more than the GT3 – and a structure borrowed from the 911 Turbo, the German put everything on aerodynamics.

Its huge spoiler, which works in conjunction with active flaps located in the flat bottom, upstream of the front wheels, incorporates a DRS: a drag reduction systemlike the Formula 1 of Hamilton, Verstappen, Leclerc and company.

It opens with pressing a button on the steering wheel, in 35 hundredths of a second.

Or automatically, when the driver depresses the gas pedal to 95%, the engine speed exceeds 5,500 rpm, the speed exceeds 100 km/h and the 911 experiences less than 0.9 g of lateral acceleration. This reduces downforce and therefore promotes acceleration and top speed.

This DRS closes in curves as well as when braking, truly taping the Porsche to the groundfor staggering stability, and contributing according to Porsche to a reduction in the stopping distance of 2.5 meters during a 200 km/h at 0.

If 911s have long been considered excellent brakers, this one is phenomenal. The « too late » no longer exists!

Once in the curve, guided by its front axle coated with 275/30 R20 (Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 during our test), nothing seems capable of disturbing the ultimate version of the GT3.

Even in the fast sections, at seemingly excessive speeds, and even on wet pavement, the heading is excellent. The RS seems stuckas if squeezed by the fingers of a child playing with his Majorette.

During our tests on the Silverstone circuit, where the rain often appears between showers, even automatic watering subtly orchestrated by the clouds didn’t seem to affect the handling of this 911.

She contented herself with gently widening the curve in the winding portions, progressively and sparingly, but remaining always considerate and efficient.

Able to generate 860 kg downforce at 285 km/h, it already provides just over 400 to 200 km/h. It’s more than any other 911, and as much as a ‘real’ GT3 class racing car.

At Silverstone, where fast curves are numerous and coated with a smooth asphalt like a billiard table, this efficiency serves the serenity of the driver, always confident when he hasa car as fast as it is reassuring.

But the driver will be less serene for big starts: Porsche has abandoned the idea of ​​the front trunk, stating that this small detail did not bother its customers.

In place of spare underpants and socks, there is now a radiator – whereas the previous generation of GT3 RS (the 991.2) had three – and a very largely ventilated hood.

Its deflectors have the function of direct the hot air extracted from the radiator to the sidethus allowing ambient air to flow along the windscreen, along the roof and supply the intake.

It is moreover so that the hot air directed along the side windows does not come to disturb this flow, while going up, that aerodynamic moldings have been placed on each side of the roof.

Finally, the vents in the rear fenders are no longer used to ventilate the engine but, like the fins located behind the wheels, to control the flow of air. Everything here is about efficiency.

Even the streamlined front suspension arms generate up to 40 kg of downforce on the steering axle. No detail seems forgotten, not even the lightweight body, made of carbon-reinforced compositeon the front fenders, hood, doors, roof and spoiler.

And Porsche also prides itself on having integrated a suspension adjuster accessible from the steering wheel. The driver/rider can, by separating the front and rear axles, adjust the compression stiffness, independent of the rebound setting.

Each parameter adjusts to nine preset positions; this makes it possible to adjust the firmness of the damping according to the type of circuit, or even the weather. Unfortunately, with only a few laps on a track that we were discovering, we didn’t feel any huge differences from one setting to another.

The brand also had fun offering an adjustable differential, also from the wheels on the steering wheel. It makes it possible to generate more or less of a difference in speed between the rear left and rear right wheels, fitted with 335/30 R 21.

And if the pilot wishes, the adjustment operates differently during decelerations and during restarts, so as to offer, at any time and in a perceptible way, stability or mobility, according to the mood (and the talent) of the lucky pilot. Magical.

What we talk less about at Porsche is the engine. As if he were relegated to second place. It’s simply because the “flat-6” is identical to that of a “simple” GT3, except for the camshafts and the mapping.

Despite increasingly stringent standards, it now exceeds 131 horsepower per liter of displacement. Still just as melodious, with its metallic notes that evolve over the revs, this “naturally” aspirated engine remains a centerpiece.

Full of spontaneity, rage, it shudders every moment, conveys vibrant emotions and constantly regalesbefore racing madly beyond 6,000 rpm and until approaching the switch, intervening at 9,000 rpm.

Here, no mechanical box. This 992 GT3 RS necessarily associates its 4.0 liters with the robotized 7-speed transmission, controlled by paddles on the steering wheel (in magnesium) with magnetic return.

This does not change much, but still improves the feeling at the fingertips. This is also the very principle of this GT3 RS; no revolution, but improvements everywhere.

It’s as if the engineers had quibbled over every detail. As in the world of racing, in short, so that every conceivable hundredth of a second can be grabbedto go a little faster everywhere.

The smartphone app also allows you, in addition to filming your own prowess, to analyze every detail (braking force, steering wheel angle, pressure on the accelerator, over and understeer, engine speed, position on the track, lap time, lateral/longitudinal accelerations expressed in g, maximum speed, temperatures, etc.), for, after study, improve your driving and draw the quintessence of this GT3 RS.

But the best thing still remains, for us, to entrust it to a real driver like Timo Bernhard, double World Champion in endurance and twice winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which gave us a real demonstration at the wheel.

It is there, in the hands of masters, that the German then equipped with the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R reveals its full potential… and everything that a “normal” driver is incapable of.

But at the controls of this exceptional track rider, it’s a safe bet that even amateurs, when driving on the circuit, end as a pattern: at the very top of the time sheet.

Horribly expensive, but beautifully effective, the GT3 RS is missing just a number on the door. This car sharpened like no other allows wealthy amateurs to afford a real racing car, with which they can also go and buy their bread. A dream.

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