Porsche 911 GT2 RS

Did anyone ever get out of a 911 Turbo S and proclaim it too slow? Or a GT3 RS and think it could do with being a bit sharper? Whether they did or not, Porsche has answered those questions with this - the new GT2 RS; an intriguing mash-up of Turbo S and GT3 RS, with the promise of more of everything.

Its predecessors have quite a reputation, rightly or wrongly, with the previous GT2 and GT2 RS both being dubbed 'the widowmaker’, in reference to the combination of massive power and potentially tricky handling.

The GT2 RS appeals to a certain type of customer, then, with Porsche’s GT boss Andreas Preuninger saying they’re a little bit more overt, demanding the very best performance. As such, the GT2 RS is deliberately loud, both visually and aurally.

Preuninger also admits it’s a riposte to those commentators that say the GT department has lost its focus on outright speed and instead has been building more purist-orientated cars like the 911 R and manual GT3.

It’s a very explicit response to that, the GT department taking the GT2 RS to that track, and putting a stopwatch on it. The result was a 6min 47.3sec lap time, beating all production car comers and smashing even Porsche’s own predicted times. By some considerable margin.

To allow that, the GT team has thrown everything at the GT2 RS with an engine derived from the Turbo S’s 3.8-litre twin-turbo, and the chassis, aero and weight-saving more akin to the direction the GT3 takes. 

It’s no simple bitsa, though. The GT2 RS ...