What can I say about the 992-generation Porsche 911 GT3 RS that hasn’t already been stated? It takes every thing that was good with the 991.2 model — and there was a lot great things — and pushes it to the intense. The 2023 GT3 RS’s full lively aero system and the on-the-fly, driver-adjustable damper system are with out peer. Porsche turned up the wick on the 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat-six engine, now making 525 horsepower, and the gearing within the 7-speed PDK computerized gearbox has been tuned particularly for max acceleration out of corners. It’s all been stated earlier than, so what’s there so as to add? Well, oddly sufficient, the one factor lacking from all these plaudits has been this: What is the 2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS prefer to drive in full-tilt, most assault mode on the observe?
When Porsche first invited journalists to drive the 992-generation GT3 RS, the automaker scheduled the launch occasion at Silverstone Circuit within the British countryside, a observe that will permit the RS’s aero capabilities to shine. Unfortunately, the one observe time accessible was in late October, and because it seems, England will get a good bit of rain within the fall.
So all of us assembled automobile writers spent the day tip-toeing across the legendary high-speed F1 circuit, not desirous to make headlines as the primary driver to jot down off a 2023 GT3 RS. That form of factor tends to stay to at least one’s popularity.
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To make it as much as us, Porsche invited journalists to a second occasion, this time at Thermal Motorsports Country Club in arid Palm Springs, California. A spot so dry, a vigorous nose-blowing is sufficient to set off native flood warnings. No probability of rain at this occasion — only a handful of brand-new 2023 GT3 RSes, a choose few invitees to drool over them, and Porsche hotshoes Pat Long and Jörg Bergmeister to information us across the observe. It was shaping as much as be a full day of beating Porsche’s masterpiece.
And thrash we did.
Prior to this Porsche occasion, my complete time spent on-track at Thermal had been restricted to a sighting lap just a few years in the past with the late Jeff Rodriguez, who on the time was observe supervisor and was one in all my first instructors at Skip Barber a long time prior. I wanted just a few laps to reacquaint myself with which means the tarmac went. Pat Long, who was main me round in a non-RS 992 GT3, clearly didn’t agree, quickly disappearing into the gap and anticipating me to match his tempo. (Side notice: On day, I’d battle to match Pat’s tempo, so his considering was a contact… optimistic.)
The wonderful thing about having Pat up forward within the GT3 was that I might use him as a rabbit, gauging my pace into the corners, shortening my studying curve on each the automobile and the observe. This isn’t to say that Pat was at a drawback — the non-RS GT3 is an incredible machine regardless of the place you’re driving it. But the addition of the RS bundle, with its absolutely lively aero, provides you a 911 that produces downforce numbers simply shy of Porsche’s Le Mans GTE race automobile. While the common GT3 makes a good bit of downforce, the RS is a distinct animal.
This was evidenced by the truth that I used to be capable of shut a several-car-size hole between me and Pat within the North Course carousel, an extended, sweeping 270-degree nook that principally doubles again on itself. While the RS has a slight further benefit in mechanical grip, due to its 20-mm-wider tires entrance and rear, that additional rubber isn’t sufficient to make up for the huge distinction in cornering pace. The RS is solely on one other stage from the GT3.
Porsche had us working a structure that mixed Thermal’s North and Desert circuits. Coming out of the Desert circuit and onto the again half of the North course, you run by means of a collection of high-speed esses that show the completely insane aero benefit the RS has over its in any other case very succesful sibling. As you undergo the esses, you decide up increasingly more pace and get gentle as you crest the one “hill” on the circuit, main right into a dip and thru the ultimate S-curve. With metal guardrails that come up rapidly in your left, it is a big pace, big dedication second. Get it unsuitable, and also you’ll litter the desert with very costly bits of Porsche’s best. But the RS provides zero fucks. Carry something lower than most pace by means of right here, and the automobile nearly taunts you, questioning your talent and bravado because it nearly screams at you, telling you it’s able to so, a lot extra.
At Thermal, I acquired to spend a while chatting with Bergmeister, who did a majority of the event work on the RS. He instructed me that engineers in contrast the info between the GT3 RS on Michelin Cup 2 tires and a GT3 Cup automobile on race slicks, and the cornering pace of the RS was sooner than the Cup automobile by means of a number of corners.
Again: Street automobile on avenue tires, sooner than the race automobile on race tires.
The GT3 RS’s aero benefit extends to braking as properly. The prime component on the huge rear wing, in addition to the entrance wing components, all slam shut below heavy braking. This has a double impact. First, the aero components act as an air brake, creating an enormous quantity of drag that aids the RS’s large 16-inch ceramic disc brakes in arresting the RS down from insane speeds in very brief distances. In addition to serving to gradual the automobile down, these closed components additionally assist stabilize the automobile below braking, giving the motive force a superhuman stage of confidence within the brake zone and permitting these keen to check their bravery to push boundaries that will usually be far, far past their consolation stage.
This is the magic that’s the 992-generation 911 GT3 RS. It isn’t simply that it has efficiency ranges to rival Porsche’s vaunted race vehicles — it’s that you simply don’t should be a professional driver to entry a lot of that efficiency. Sure, in the suitable (skilled) arms, the GT3 RS will obliterate something this aspect of a GTP prototype, straight off the showroom flooring. But you don’t want that skilled expertise to get most enjoyment out of the RS. The lively aero and adjustable suspension permit the typical track-day driver to come back nearer to the automobile’s limits than some other supercar I’ve ever pushed. At the tip of the day, isn’t that what all of us need? Performance vehicles that make us higher drivers. That, my pals, is the 2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS in a nutshell.
2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS Specs
Engine kind
Premium Unleaded H-6
Transmission/Drive
Auto-Shift Manual w/OD
Source: jalopnik.com