PORSCHE Lovers

[Gast]

Net eens op de Duitse CC gaan kijken.
Blijkbaar heeft Porsche voor het nieuwe jaar ook weer een paar 1000€ bij de prijzen van zijn auto's geteld.

[Gast]

Net eens op de Duitse CC gaan kijken.
Blijkbaar heeft Porsche voor het nieuwe jaar ook weer een paar 1000€ bij de prijzen van zijn auto's geteld.

Logisch toch ?
Ik doe dat ook soms hoor , zomaar zonder reden een prijsverhoging

[Gast]

Ik zie geen oei.

Ik zie wel dat die velgen beter geven dan ik dacht

Mij storen die zilver lamellekes in de happers vooraan.

[Gast]

Mij storen die zilver lamellekes in de happers vooraan.

Das idd mottig.

[Gast]

[Gast]

mat witte wrap

[Gast]

[Gast]

997 S - full race setup:

[Porker]

Has Porsche kept its promise to make the new GT3 RS entirely distinct from the standard GT3?

In spades. It costs £104,841, some £19,277 more than the GT3 but it is so much more than the slightly sharper focussed, more track oriented car that the last RS was to the previous GT3. Brake specification apart, there is not a single area of dynamic endeavour that has not been extensively modified to turn the GT3 into this GT3 RS and the net result is a car that genuinely deserves to be thought of as a model apart.

Go on then…

Starting at the back, this is the first RS to have more power than its equivalent GT3. By using a special engine cover forcing air into a conical (rather than cylindrical) ram intake and an inlet manifold shortened and tuned for power rather than torque the output of the 3.8-litre flat six has been raised from 435bhp to 450bhp. Torque remains the same 317lb ft but is now developed 500rpm further up the rev range at 6750rpm. To save weight, the entire exhaust system is now titanium.

As with all motorsports products, paddle shift PDK transmissions are eschewed in favour of a short-throw six speed manual, but for the RS all ratios have been reduced, first to fifth by 11 per cent, sixth by five per cent. Quirkily this means the GT3 actually has the higher top speed: 194mph versus 192mph. On the 0-62mph sprint, the RS beats the GT3 by a scant tenth of a second, taking 4sec dead.

As before the RS has a 44mm wider body and a 30mm wider rear track but for the first time the front track has also been widened, by 12cm, and wider wheels (9J x 19”) with fatter tyres fitted (245/35ZR19). Under the skin there are split rear wishbones for finer track tuning, bespoke (and adjustable) anti-roll bars, a more track oriented tune for its dampers and, for the first time on any RS, race specification stability control to complement the carry over traction control, both of which can be entirely disabled.

Visually a new aerodynamic package can be seen, with a deep rubber front splitter balancing the vast, adjustable carbon fibre rear wing. Together they can exert 170kg of downforce on the RS at 186mph.

So is it all worth it?

Not unless you’re going to drive it like your pants on are fire. For most people, even die-hard enthusiasts, the standard GT3 will be all the 911 they will ever want. Indeed if you drive the RS merely very fast you will ponder the value of the extra money especially when the quieter, more comfortable GT3 is a substantially more usable car. But if you can find the right road or, more likely, track, it will take you places to which not even a GT3 has access. The power delivery, the available performance and the balance of mechanical and aerodynamic grip make it unquestionably the greatest 911 of the modern era. It is one of a tiny number of cars capable of removing the power of speech from even the most grizzled of motoring hacks. In a word, it is sublime.

(Article by Andrew Frankel, GT Porsche)

[Porker]

What is it?

You need to ask? Porsche has helpfully scrawled the model name across the front and rear arches in massive script. Okay, so this is the latest 911 GT3 RS – the gen-2 997, meaning a 3.8-litre block with vario-cam.

As before, the RS gets wider rear arches than the regular GT3, and a plexiglass rear window. But this time Porsche has gone further, answering critcism that (in road trim) the two models weren’t different enough.

So there is more punch from the engine. 444bhp, a 15bhp gain. And for the first time, the 44mm-wider rear body is accompanied by a 26mm extension to the front. There are many other detailed changes, which we’ll come to later.

What’s it like?

As always when driving a GT3 RS, it is difficult to concentrate on anything else. Not because it is especially demanding, in many ways it is a surprisingly easy car to drive, but because it is so all-consuming.

There is the noise, a wonderful mixture of mechanical whirs and induction gasps. Next to the GT3, not only do you hear more (because of that rear window), but also the sound is different. The RS gets a titanium exhaust (lighter and with different resonant properties), and uses a single-mass flywheel (also lighter). Together they produce a more irregular, unsettled idle, and a faster throttle response.

But it is the feel of the thing that makes the GT3 such a spectacularly enjoyable car to drive (even more so in RS trim). Personally I think it has one of the best steering systems of any car on sale today - feelsome, accurate and with ideal weighting, whatever the corner speed. Does it steer and more sweetly than the regular GT3? Without driving the two back to back on the same road it is difficult to be categorical, but from where I’m sitting today I’d say so. There’s just a fraction more feel and confidence and feel on turn-in, especially through the faster stuff.

At 1370kg, the RS saves 25kg over the GT3. Why not more? Because the weight-saving measures have to first clawback the mass added by the extra bodywork and wider wheels; the RS runs an extra 10mm on the front and 20mm on the rear.

To get down to that that weight involves careful options selection, though, because you need to do without air-con (20kg) and the stereo (6kg), and fork out for ceramic brakes (20kg), and the lightweight bucket seats (not cheap, at £3064). Do all this and you’ll have the exact specification of GT3 RS shown here.

For the truly committed, doing away with the bi-xenon headlamps saves a further 6kg, while an optional lithium-ion battery sheds 10kg.

So on the occasions when it’s possible to use everything the 3.8-litre motorsport engine has to offer, does 15bhp make a difference? On paper the RS is more accelerative than the GT3, but only fractionally (there’s just 0.1sec in it from rest to 100mph). In reality you’d be hard pushed to tell two apart in pure performance, but in character they perform slightly differently. The extra power comes not as a result of changes to the engine internals, but a more efficient induction kit and higher compression ratio.

The flipside is that the maximum torque, although identical, is produced at higher revs in the RS. So you have to work a little harder for the performance. But the payoffs are greater, because over the final 1000rpm the RS sings that little bit more sweetly.

To balance the additional drag produced by the RS’s overdeveloped aero package (which produces 170kg of downforce at 186mph, or around double that of the GT3), Porsche has dropped the standard gear ratios.

In doing so Porsche has, perhaps inadvertently, solved one of the regular GT3’s main drawbacks as a road car: exceptionally long gearing. Second is still good for 77mph and third 106mph, but presented with a temptingly brilliant road, you end up using more of the rev range and more ratios.

The grip levels are so high that realistically, on the road, you’re only ever going to get near the limit through the tightest turns. But do so, and contary to what you might expect, the RS proves easier to manage than the regular car. Because you have more front-end grip, it feels better balanced, with less understeer and more neutrality. And because the RS gets Porsche’s clever active engine mounts as standard, it better controls the mass of the engine and gearbox (270kg) in direction changes

Dynamically there is only one grumble: that the height of the brake pedal, combined with the effectiveness of PCCB, makes heel-and-toeing tricky at road speeds.

Should I buy one?

It would be easy to dismiss the GT3 RS as a trackday irrelevance. Many will be used as just that, their owners able to tinker with the infinitely adjustable suspension settings.

But the surprise here is that the GT3 RS is still a useable road car, and not by virtue of conceding just enough comfort and forgiveness to get by, but because it is a genuinely enjoyable and engaging to drive. The ride is hardly any less supple than the regular GT3, the firmer suspension counterbalanced against taller sidewalls.

Is it worth a £20k premium? We are into a diminishing margin of returns here. The regular GT3 is hardly what you’d call disappointing, and the premium represents another 25 per cent again. But if you can afford the extra, the RS is even better.

(Article by Jamie Corstorphine, Autocar)

[Porker]

Porsche's hardest charging, most focussed 911 yet proves to be a devastatingly effective road car...

Date: February 2010
Location: Nice, France

Porsche doesn't need to advertise the GT3; its racing activities put the lightweight machine directly in front of the right audience. The RS version even more so, Porsche's homologation version raising the bar higher than the already sensational GT3. In this iteration it's wider, has more power, shorter gear ratios and generates almost double the downforce of its lesser-stickered relative. It's quicker to 62mph too, if only 0.1 seconds so. At around £20,000 more it's significantly more expensive than the GT3, but it's well worth the extra.

In the Metal

Today's RS takes the coloured-wheel and decaled look of the '73 original to a new, far more overt, level. You're left with no doubt that this isn't merely a GT3. New GT3 RS stickers trail up over the front wing behind the headlamp while its twin slides off its opposite rear wing. Add the chequered effect down the RS's flanks, new wheels, wing mirrors and a central front air intake coloured in the same opposing hue and the RS is far from subtle.

Look beyond the stickers though and the RS reveals more detailed changes over its GT3 relative. There's a massive new carbon fibre rear wing resting on aluminium struts, re-profiled air intakes and outlets in the front bumper, a longer front splitter, a revised engine cover, a plastic rear window and wider front and rear wings covering the RS's increased track. Inside, Clubsport specification is standard, so there's a cage and figure-hugging lightweight seats, along with RS specific items like lightweight door trims and pull straps in place of handles for opening the doors.

What you get for your Money

Less weight. That's always been what the RS is about and every kilo of weight the RS loses over its GT3 relative costs you around £800. Underlining its hardcore focus you can have it without air conditioning and lose the stereo too, the weight purists able to go even further by binning the standard headlamps and their washers, adding even lighter fixed back sports seats and Porsche's PCCB carbon ceramic brakes. There's even the option of a lighter lithium ion battery that saves 10kg. Start getting too obsessive about the weight and you could quickly find yourself spending significantly more than the RS's £104,841 list price.

Notably, the RS gains power, albeit just 15bhp; raising the output from the 3.8-litre unit to 444bhp. The engine features a lighter single-mass flywheel and the gearbox comes with revised, shorter ratios, bringing the 0-62mph time down to four seconds dead, though thanks to its substantially increased downforce a standard GT3 betters the RS's 192mph top speed.

Driving it

With that rev-hungry 3.8-litre flat-six having just 1,370kg to shift it'll come as no surprise that the RS is rapid. It's difficult initially to see quite where the differences lie between it and the GT3, but time with it reveals the harder, even purer focus of the RS. The first thing that is apparent is how much noisier it is. The RS's engine chunters away like a race car at idle and the exhaust note is different thanks to both the GT3 RS's freer breathing titanium exhaust system and the differing resonance that occurs inside thanks to the RS's plastic rear window.

You'll barely hear the engine and exhaust on the move though, as your senses are overloaded with other information. Specifically through the steering wheel, the Alcantara rimmed sports wheel offering just about the best combination of weighting, accuracy and feedback possible. There's no slack in the system, the RS's nose going exactly where you want it once there's some heat in the wide, lightly treaded Michelin Pilot Sport tyres. The wider track at the front makes itself evident with an even keener turn in, and a greater resistance to understeer. Indeed, it'll be a seriously ham-fisted driver, or one with cold tyres in the wet, who breaches the front end grip of the RS at road speeds.

The rear feels similarly planted, Porsche's suspension engineers managing to enable the track-focussed RS to ride with quite astonishing composure on its unique PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) settings. It's certainly taut, but it's rarely if ever harsh. That allows you to carry the so easily gained pace with ridiculous ease, the RS demonstrating ably on tortuously twisty and sometimes shockingly surfaced roads that it's not merely a smooth track-only machine.

The brakes provide the expected incredible stopping power, though the middle pedal's positioning is a touch high for easy, everyday heel and toe downshifts. The gearbox in our test car didn't always shift with the sort of mechanical precision we'd like, the second to third change in particular feeling a touch tight - though we'd expect that to loosen out as more miles roll under the RS's lightweight single nut wheels.

You need to use the gearbox more too, as Porsche's engineers have shortened the first five ratios by around 11% and altered the sixth by 5% for greater sprinting ability. Combine that with the faster revving engine and you're busy with the gearstick, but that's all part of the RS's unique appeal. Stability and traction control systems come as standard, their effect subtle and switchable, but it's a brave or otherworldly talented driver who'll switch everything off on a wet road with those special tyres lacking heat - or much in the way of tread. In the dry the RS will do anything you ask of it, whether you're after eye-widening precision at speed through long sweepers, or show-off power oversteer exiting tighter bends.

Worth Noting

Apparently the GT3 RS produces 170kg of positive downforce at 186mph, which is four times as much as its predecessor. All that downforce, its extra sprinting ability and the slight increase in power allow it to lap the Nürburgring in 7 minutes 33 seconds. That's a whole seven seconds quicker than the standard GT3 and just one second slower than the Carrera GT supercar.

Hardcore, but not overly compromised as a result, though if you want to avoid costly sounding scrapes at driveway entrances or over traffic calming speed-bumps then the optional nose lifting kit is a sensible addition.

Summary

Small but significant tweaks distance the new 911 GT3 RS from its GT3 sibling, though not at the expense of usability. It's hard to justify the price premium when looked at rationally, but a drive underlines the RS's clearer focus, sharper steering response and even more eager engine. It's a very special car.

(Article by Kyle Fortune, Car Enthusiast)

[Alexx]

Je hoopt dat 'Tuur Bo' dit leest he?

[GeeZer]

Van de fl zou ik veel liever een rs hebben gewoon om het idee dat bij een gewone een prachtig hoogtoerig blokje dichtgeknepen is zonder rede. Bij een pfl maakt het mij niet zo uit, al is een rs wel wat mooier dan een gewone

[Gast]

Van de fl zou ik veel liever een rs hebben gewoon om het idee dat bij een gewone een prachtig hoogtoerig blokje dichtgeknepen is zonder rede.

By using a special engine cover forcing air into a conical (rather than cylindrical) ram intake and an inlet manifold shortened and tuned for power rather than torque the output of the 3.8-litre flat six has been raised from 435bhp to 450bhp

Hoezo de GT3 dichtgeknepen ?

Maar uiteraard is de RS nog een tikkeltje beter dan de GT3, helaas op dit moment zwaar buiten budget

[Gast]

Ik zou nog steeds liever de gewone GT3 hebben.

[GeeZer]

By using a special engine cover forcing air into a conical (rather than cylindrical) ram intake and an inlet manifold shortened and tuned for power rather than torque the output of the 3.8-litre flat six has been raised from 435bhp to 450bhp

Hoezo de GT3 dichtgeknepen ?

Maar uiteraard is de RS nog een tikkeltje beter dan de GT3, helaas op dit moment zwaar buiten budget

Is een beetje kip en ei he, is de ene afgeknepen of de andere opgevoerd, het slaat alleszins op niet veel.

[Gast]

But if you can find the right road or, more likely, track, it will take you places to which not even a GT3 has access. The power delivery, the available performance and the balance of mechanical and aerodynamic grip make it unquestionably the greatest 911 of the modern era. It is one of a tiny number of cars capable of removing the power of speech from even the most grizzled of motoring hacks. In a word, it is sublime.

dus, om naar de Ring te gaan en daar 5à10 rondjes te rijden: gewone GT3

[Gast]

[Gast]

[Porker]

Any day that begins with someone handing you the keys to a GT3 RS can rightly be considered a good day. And so it was, when the man from Porsche did just that.

Then the day went wrong. A blizzard hit the Cannes area, like it does every 2000 years. I had the definitive fast-road machine, access to the definitive fast roads, and I spent five hours sitting in a ****ing traffic jam. It was so unbelievably frustrating (as anyone who follows me on Twiter will already know) that it was almost funny.

Two events saved me from losing my marbles. The first was our escape from blizzard-strewn Cannes. Snapper Chris Rutter turned Sapper and scouted the A8, which had a barrier down closing it to all traffic. But we’d seen an elderly local-type drive straight around it, and feeling de-mob-happy through frustration, we slithered the Porsche’s hips around the barrier and skidded onto the A8. It was deserted. Apart from the odd stranded truck, we had the place to ourselves. I’ve driven that stretch of road hundreds of times: it’s always packed and almost always sunny –hence it being called the Autoroute de Soleil- and it just felt so foreign.

So we stopped and took a few snaps of the Porsche in those strange surroundings. And left before we were arrested.

In five hours we didn’t get above 60mph. That’s criminal in an RS.

Still, musn’t grumble, you see I’m going to have plenty of seat time in an RS over the coming months: I’m driving one at the Nurburgring 24hrs this year and (I’m pinching myself and grinning like a school child typing this), my team mate is called Walter Rohrl. For that opportunity, I’d happily spend hours – months even - dawdling about a snowy Cote D’Azur.