The Porsche 911 GT3 R rennsport Is a 611-HP Track Star With a Gigantic Wing
Big wing is good. Very, very good.
File this under wish fulfillment. Sick of all those pesky FIA regulations governing power, weight, gearing, and other attributes of its race cars, Porsche decided to throw them all out and build the phenomenal Porsche 911 GT3 R rennsport, its latest ultra-limited, track-only dream machine revealed at Rennsport Reunion 7 on Thursday night. Based on the 911 GT3 R race car with a 611-horsepower, 4.2-liter flat six revving to 9,400 rpm, all-new bodywork and a gigantic wing inspired by the iconic Brumos Porsche 935/77, it's... well, just look at it. This thing is fire.
We say "based" on the GT3 R race car, but really, it is the GT3 R freed of those FIA constraints. The same superlative chassis, the same screaming engine, the same suspension, just in an entirely different package. Only the GT3 R rennsport's hood and roof are shared with the real thing. The rest is a fever dream of max performance.
As the most obvious visual element, the massive, swooping rear wing harks back to the Brumos Porsche 935/77 that took home Porsche's seventh overall victory at Le Mans back in 1978. Porsche says this wing generates so much downforce that two extra vertical supports had to be added to compensate. It sits atop a full-width lightbar wrapping around the fenders that accentuates the car's width, and the open rear fascia does away with actual grilles in the name of weight-saving—and, of course, artistically exposed mechanical components.
Speaking of innards, the way the roll cage is designed means there is no passenger seat, while ambient lighting can be set to match the color-adjustable headlights. Side mirrors have also been chucked for three cameras feeding into the cockpit to make it that much slipperier. There's also no air-conditioning, but the driver's seat is ventilated to compensate.
Out back sits a 4.2-liter flat-six that revs up to 9,400 (!) rpm and makes 611 hp, up from the R's 557 hp. There is no muffler, though you can spec one if you're not a fan of beautiful noises. Pistons and camshafts were developed specifically for this car. It can run on E25 fuels including bio-ethanol and eFuel, which, if Porsche has its way, means the GT3 R rennsport can potentially be driven while remaining carbon neutral.
Sending power to the rear axle only, the sequential six-speed constant-mesh transmission is mostly unchanged from the race car and comes with the ratios used at Daytona. Double wishbones up front and multi-links at the rear support five-way adjustable KW racing shock absorbers with a blow-off function while aluminum monobloc AP race brakes use pads with titanium backing plates that cut unsprung mass by 2.2 pounds. The whole thing, by the way, weighs just 2,734 pounds.
Keeping it all glued down are special Michelin race tires wrapping 18-inch BBS center lock wheels made specifically for the car. The rubber not only boasts better warm-up and drivability, but also sports notably thick sidewalls that give it a more classic stance to counterbalance all the wild aero flourishes across the rest of the body.
Without a doubt one of the most insane 911s ever made, the Porsche 911 GT3 R rennsport has a starting price to match: $1,046,000, also making it the most expensive 911 the company's ever built. And it's only making 77 of them, so unless you're fabulously wealthy with a line into Porsche's inner circle, you're not getting one. But with such an inspired setup, this is the rare unobtainable car that still leaves us thankful it exists at all.
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