Unveiled at Porsche’s annual Rennsport Reunion festivities, the Porsche 911 GT3 R Rennsport is undeniably the most insane new 911 on the market, especially since it isn’t even street-legal. Fundamentally, it’s a version of the track-only 911 GT3 R with some of the rules-mandated stuff peeled back, because wealthy clients just want to go fast.
See, classed, homologated sports car racing typically involves a balance of performance [BoP] to lift naturally slower cars up and hold naturally faster cars back. Typically, this involves detuning engines and/or adding weight until the fastest car in the field hits a power-to-weight ratio that grants slower cars some competitiveness. However, the 911 GT3 R Rennsport isn’t a homologated race car. Therefore, Porsche was free to turn the wick up. Way, way up.
How does 612 horsepower from a 4.2-liter naturally-aspirated flat-six sound? That’s right, Porsche’s posting up these numbers without forced induction, without all the combustion cycles of a big V12, and without many rules to get in the way. The red end of the tach doesn’t arrive until 9,400 RPM, the engine makes peak power on a mixture of 75 percent gasoline and 25 percent ethanol, and gears four, five, and six in the six-speed sequential transaxle match up perfectly with the Daytona gearset used on the homologated race car.
Oh, and did I mention that the 911 GT3 R Rennsport only weighs 2,734 pounds? Yeah, that’s a full-on supercar power-to-weight ratio in a low-volume trackday special, so you bet this thing comes with some sticky rubber — Brand new race-spec Michelin Pilot tires that Porsche says “benefit from a new construction associated with a new compound tread that result in an improved warm-up and drivability compared to the Michelin Pilot Sport M S9 (S9M).” Color me intrigued, as tires are arguably the most important parts on a car, next to the nut behind the wheel.
So what about bodywork? Well, the hood and the roof are taken from the 911 GT3 R, but every other outward-facing panel has been strategically altered with the sole goal of aerodynamic optimization. From the faired-in flics to the revised bumper grillework, this thing means business down to the smallest lines. Of course, it still looks like a 911, which means that despite its ultra-wide carbon fiber coachwork, this trackday toy should still be recognizable by many. I’m particularly fond of the enormous RSR-throwback wing, but that’s just me.
However, not everything on this apex predator is a thorough improvement. Porsche has replaced the exterior mirrors with cameras, tech that’s hot garbage for very scientific reasons. Between latency, physics of light, depth of field, and luminance, these flashy pieces of tech may offer an aerodynamic advantage over traditional mirrors, but they’re far less user-friendly. If you want to learn more, Jason has an excellent explainer.
Minor mirror gripe aside, this insane 911 certainly has the goods to back up its looks. It’s powerful, relatively light, and completely bonkers in the best way possible. Porsche only plans on building 77 911 GT3 R Rennsport examples, which is just as well, seeing as the global pool of well-heeled complete lunatics is, erm, small. Still, imagine pulling up to a trackday and seeing one of these in the paddock. Point-bys, anyone?
(Photo credits: Porsche)
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Would hoon. Might replace some cameras with mirrors, but 14325/10, would hoon.
Gimme the new 911 S/T. Please and thank you.
I agree, but sadly even that is beyond my bank account. Normally, I’m not that curious about cars costing more than a quarter million dollars, let alone multi-million dollar ones (which this likely is) but of course, the fact that it’s a naturally aspirated six cylinder making over 600hp and a 911 piques my interest. 😉 Just for laughs, I’d have liked it if the article told us the pricetag, even if they’re already sold out.
Less than 4&1/2 lbs per horsepower. That’s nucking futz! I autocrossed a Dulon (former Formula F car shortened for autocross) a few times. That was around 150hp in an open-wheeled car weighing maybe 1200lbs with me in it—and it was violent. I’m guessing at the weight there, but math on that is 8lbs/hp. I can barely imagine how brutal this beast is. I’ll never get to drive one—and that’s a good thing as I’ll freely admit my skills aren’t anywhere near that level.
Yeah, there’s a lot of nasty crap going on in the world, but then I see something like this and smile and my heart lifts a bit. I just hope that at least a few owners take them out & wring them out once in awhile. That’s way too much potential joy to just sit on jackstands in climate-controlled storage.
(1) It looks great
(2) What’s it for?…I have a bunch of GT3RS and they are great for whacking around the trackman can be driven home. My bet is that very few of these will show up at the track and being not legal for the road will sit in collections. Not tempted at all to get one.
Some folks just want a pre-made track car with no compromises for road-ability, and welp, this is one of those. It’d have to be trailered in, but so would any other track-only build. Heck, that’s sort of why I got a 944 that was all racecar’d out on the absolute opposite end of the budget spectrum. I got tired of beating up my road car, and a full-on race car with a cage, harnesses and such is made to withstand possible track-speed wrecks much better than a road car is.
My guess is that these may show up at higher-end track days from time to time, although I’m still waiting for to see that wild GT2 RS-based 935 tribute from the last Rennsport Reunion in the wild. I kind of wish parsh would treat these ultra-limited track specials more like Ferrari does its FXX cars—as in, this exists to hoon on track, so we’ll support you hooning it. The FXX cars get used, and it’s *glorious* seeing ’em in action.
Neat! Though this is like the 935 tribute of years ago, which was also not street legal and generally unobtanium. I guess if you live near somewhere like Monticello or Thermal Club you might actually see one of these.
May be a sneak peek of future road car tech though. 4.2L stroker cranks have long been popular, if not 4.5L conversions which get the current GT3 motor to near 600HP with 400lb-ft to the wheels. It’s also known that better pipes from headers back offer a real measurable increase as well, including eliminating the small torque dip in the 3s-4s.
The current GT3 engine architecture had some bugbears mostly from block flex in the first two iterations, though the current version (992.1, GT4 RS, Spyder RS and possibly the 991.2 Speedster) I believe has all the bugs worked out. So Porsche may be ready to move the motor forward yet again.
Mmmmh thanks for this fresh circlejerk material.
Speaking as someone very ignorant of this kind of thing, is this blend readily available at racetracks, or anywhere for that matter?
Here in the Midwest we have E10, E15, and E85 readily available, and while I suppose it’s possible Porsche didn’t have us corn farmers in mind when designing the combustion parameters, if we can’t get fuel straight out of the pump, who can?
Not being able to fill at it a fuel station is a non-issue. This isn’t street legal.
You’re already trailering this to the track, or keeping it at permanently at a club like Thermal or Monticello. Buyers are already, “in it for a pound” so fueling expenses won’t register.
It wasn’t the expense I was referring to, but the hassle of mixing/filling with multiple fuels if the 75/25 blend isn’t available trackside or at a station on the way.
I mean, this isn’t quite up there with things like the Ferrari FXX where you have to ask Ferrari for permissions to use your car and they send a support crew, but this isn’t too far outside of that realm. Moreover, I’m sure it runs fine on trackside gas, just not at peak power.
The Porsche 935 Tribute — which wasn’t even offered in the US — was $817,000 before options. Given prices going up, I reckon this is 7-digits. Once you get into that territory you’re usually dealing with a lot of hassle as it is. Having to potentially plan around bringing fuel with you to the track is par for the course.
I read the headline in Keith Flint’s voice. Well done. The music references on this site are consistently on point. Anyway what I want to talk about most here is the spoiler! To my eyes it harkens back to the 993 911 GT2 which is an amazing and extremely underrated Porsche. 424 air cooled horsepower in a chassis that weighs all of 2850 pounds.
It made basically the same power as a modern V8 pony car, weighed 1,000 pounds less, and hit the market nearly 30 years ago. I doubt any of us will ever get an opportunity to drive one of the air cooled turbo 911 variants since they’re so valuable…but it warms my heart to know they’re still out there somewhere.
For sure. On the one hand, it’s a shame 993 Turbos are so expensive. On the other, I totally get it. The speed, the sound, and the authority in which it’s all delivered is unreal. It certainly blew away my expectations.
I believe it and I’m a wee bit jealous you’ve driven one. At this stage I’d settle for driving any Porsche as I still have never been behind the wheel of one. Speaking of which there’s a certified 2016 Macan S with 25,000 miles on it and a squeaky clean CarFax listed locally for $34,000. I’ve been trying to convince my wife it’s the perfect next car for her but she’s not budging 🙁
Your wife is correct, why settle for a 2016 Macan when you could have this for as little as $ 35,000a month over ten years.
https://www.elferspot.com/en/car/porsche-koenig-specials-c62-1991-1046329/
But….will it baby??
No trouble, babies are really really little, I carried mine about with no problems,( sometimes in a Lotus eleven, please do not judge me, they are all grown up now and fine) Will it carry a 2023 baby? Not a chance, the baby will have to travel in one of the support vehicles.
Judge you for carting your offspring in a Lotus? Never: I applaud you for that.
I get it: I’ll likely have to buy a newer car if I ever want to tote my granddaughter because both of mine are over 20 years old and my daughter has already said so (but she survived my 1980s Subarus without problems).
I cannot buy a newer car because my ancient ones eat all my car money but I did bring my granddaughter (and her doting parents + a hanger on or two) home in what is described as “Nic’s proper car”. Said car is an 8 litre Bently saloon, with all the up to date safety features that the mid 1930’s had to offer. It does have an unusual effect on other motorists, they tend to get out of the way and point cameras at it rather than proceed sensibly.