Big Wing at the ‘Ring: Listen to the New Porsche 911 GT3 RS Rip
The 992 GT3 RS debuts on August 17, but you can see and hear Porsche’s hottest naturally aspirated 911 testing now.
The Porsche 911 GT3 RS is the marque's fastest, naturally aspirated track-ready model, and we've got the new 992-generation version making its official debut on Aug. 17. Yet it's already been spotted making some final test runs on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and if you love the wail of a hot flat-six, you're going to want to crank your speakers up for this one.
YouTube's CarSpyMedia captured Porsche's newest RS car ripping around undisguised during an industry pool test session on the Nordschleife, and it looks like one hell of a track weapon. The exterior is packed with wild aerodynamic mods: fins along the roofline, huge air scoops in the rear wheel arches, big air vents through the hood, and a massive rear diffuser, among other things.
The gigantic swan-neck wing is the real star, though. It's big, it's real, and my gosh, it's magnificent. Should this version make it into production—and it certainly looks like the same wing that's in Porsche's official teaser photo—this will be the first time a GT3 RS will feature active aero. You can see a flap in the rear wing pop up to close off some of the airflow under braking, and open back up to let air through on acceleration.
Like other recent RS cars, this new 992 GT3 RS features front fender vents that are designed to keep the nose of the car planted at speed, but that have also caused issues with scraping the car's fender liners on high-compression sections of the 'Ring before. Porsche's 992 GT3 RS driver certainly isn't babying it to avoid such rubs in this test video, though, with a nice bit of air at 2:55 in the video, a compression with an audible scrape at roughly 3:01, and numerous curbs taken. We'll have to see whether Porsche addressed that fender liner issue once and for all when the car makes its full debut.
We do know what that glorious sound is, though: a 4.0-liter flat-six capable of producing about 493 horsepower, carried over from the 992-gen 911 GT3 and 911 GT3 Cup. While it would make sense for Porsche to add a small bump in power and torque over the version in the GT3, power isn't the focus of the GT3 RS—aero and chassis improvements are. Porsche GT model line director Andreas Preuninger said in a press release:
“The new 911 GT3 RS is even more optimized for track use than its predecessors. The spontaneously responsive, high-revving four-liter, six-cylinder boxer engine with approximately 500 PS has proven ideal for use at track days and club sport events. That's why we focused primarily on aerodynamics and chassis questions in the development of the new 911 GT3 RS.”
We'll have to wait until Aug. 17 for the full spec sheet, but area local Dale Lomas spotted a lightly camouflaged GT3 RS at the gas station near the main Nordschleife entrance and gave away a few key details in his photos. A peek inside the car shows that the new GT3 RS will pack a PDK, complete with the gear selector that looks suspiciously like Porsche's manual knob and fakes me out every time I see it. (Bring back the manual GT3 RS, Porsche!)
Also spotted on the prototype was a new Pirelli Trofeo RS tire—a departure from the Michelins that 911 GT3s and GT3 RSes have come with in recent years. Could this be the new it-tire for hot 'Ring runs? We can't wait to find out, so if you have any more details about the newest GT3 RS or any other interesting cars you've spotted in the wild lately, hit up our tips line: tips@thedrive.com
