Porsche_int 911GT3RS_2018

There are some things that life craves. There are others that life is crying out for.

911 GT3 RS concept.

Drivers. Fans. Lovers of the true motorsport. Brace yourselves. And get ready. The race track is calling. More loudly than ever before. And with an intensity not felt for quite some time. Defensive? Routine? As if. Better to go on the attack. A challenge awaits, one that will push you beyond your comfort zone for a change. Where unfiltered fascination feels at home: in the chicane, in the banked turn, on the long straights.

Come on out, if you dare.

Before you stands a sports car of flesh and blood. Boasting a voluminous 4.0-litre six-cylinder horizontally opposed and naturally aspirated engine packing 383 kW (520 hp), mounted in the rear. Its race track chassis will show you what it means to confront the tarmac head on. Eye for an eye. Lap after lap. The fixed rear wing is a flagrant provocation to do battle. To the opponent. And to the opposing headwind. The rear silencer as well as the tailpipes in titanium are a visible sign of what the new 911 GT3 RS is promising: unadulterated sound, pure performance, and a challenge that nobody whose heart beats for sports cars can shy away from. So, what it is to be? Chicken out – or fight?

For you, where was the greatest challenge in the development of the new 911 GT3 RS? The predecessor was the most successful RS vehicle to date, and not without reason. Making a car like this even better initially seemed to be an almost unsolvable task. So we did what we always do: we worked meticulously on every detail, set ourselves high goals and, by doing so, edged closer to the impossible. In the process, everything gets put on the test stand, analysed with absolute precision and squeezed for every last drop of improvement potential: engine, transmission, chassis, aerodynamics, lightweight concepts. Even the feedback from our GT customers has been directly incorporated so that we could, in essence, tailor-make the car the way our customers wanted it. We are also implementing not only the lessons learned from motor racing, but also innovative ideas from the pinnacle of motorsport. The whole Weissach ‘think tank’ is actively involved in this. More performance, more Porsche: how do you manage to up your game with every new 911 GT model? Above all, it’s the people who make this possible. I’m talking not only about developers, but also our colleagues in production who, time and time again, find the solutions enabling cars like the GT3 RS to emerge from the assembly line in series production.

That is a challenge for us all. But we have no intention of being ousted from ‘pole position’ here. With the 911 Carrera as the basis, itself becoming increasingly higher-performing, with continuous developments in engineering and technologies and with our accumulated motorsport experience, we have developed a formula for success that forever manages to find room for improvement. How much of today’s Porsche Motorsport has gone into the new 911 GT3 RS? A great deal. The GT3 RS is not only born where our race cars are developed – namely, the Porsche Motorsport division in Flacht – a large number of the development team is, in fact, also responsible for both breeds of vehicle. That’s the reason for the high quantity of carry-over parts, e.g. from the GT3 RS and GT3 Cup or GT3 R. The test procedures of the road-legal GT vehicles are based heavily on those of their race car counterparts: the drivetrain, for example, is required to undertake endurance runs simulating race track use alone, which means subjecting it to loads that simply cannot occur in road use. That’s also why the collaboration of our works drivers is so important. Where is the greatest challenge: in the chassis or engine – or both? Everything is important. Even in the new 911 GT3 RS, the engine is now allowed to rev at 9,000 rpm. PDK shifts even faster, the chassis has an even more uncompromising setup and is very similar to that of the GT2 RS. Aerodynamics and control systems have been improved, even the tyres have undergone further development.

The greatest challenge, ultimately, is to combine a zillion parts in such a way that they harmonise perfectly with each other and feel as one. Which detail or aspect fascinates you about the new 911 GT3 RS the most? The interplay of the extremely emotive, high-revving and naturally aspirated engine in conjunction with the new vehicle’s precision. You can always place the vehicle with centimetre accuracy, you are literally at one with the car and become part of the overall system. And the most important thing: it means that this car is simply a hell of a lot of fun to drive. Even I can feel it, and that’s after nearly 20 years of daily interaction with this kind of vehicle. When I’m unable to drive one for a few weeks, I literally go into withdrawal. On which race track would you most like to drive the new 911 GT3 RS? I love the Nordschleife just as much as I fear it. No other race track can offer this mix of emotions. How can you describe the new 911 GT3 RS from your point of view in one sentence? The perfect driving machine and much more than just a high performance sports car … because it ‘talks’ to you.