Midweek Motoring with Gavin D’Souza
Porsche has just coughed up yet another Special Edition variant of its current 997-generation 911 sports car – the GT3 RS 4.0.
This is the latest in a seemingly endless series of extensions of the brand’s overdraft, and promises to be the most hardcore and track-focused road going version ever. Yawn.
The trouble is, while I make no secret of the fact I consider the 911 to be the most ubiquitous (and not in a good way) sports cars on the planet, the RS 4.0 is one I can actually agree with, at least on paper.
For a start, it houses in its nether places the largest flat-six ever fitted to a 911, at four litres.
This gives it a Turbo-rivalling power output of 368kW (although the 460Nm torque output falls significantly shy of the Turbo’s 650Nm), all of which makes it to the road via a fat pair of rear tyres.
And unlike the Turbo, or the rather ridiculous GT2 RS, the lack of forced induction means power delivery will be linear and lag-free. Or correct, as I like to call it.
There will also be none of that PDK malarkey; capable as it may be, its brilliance is directly proportional to its weight, so a six-speed self-shifter is your only option here.
Gone too are the rear seats and the radio and air-conditioning, but unlike with the ‘regular’ 3.8-litre GT3 models, you can’t re-add them in the showroom.
And why would you, really, on a car like this?
Porsche says this is the closest it has ever got to sharing the chicane-cresting feel of the 911 RSR race car with Joe Public, and I don’t doubt it one bit.
The vast carbon-fibre wing, a similar unit to the RS 3.8, works in conjunction with a pair of winglets or ‘flics’ on the front flanks (taken straight from the white-knuckle world of touring car racing) to give the car 190kg of downforce at its 311km/h top speed.
There is also a roll-cage for stiffness, and plastic rear and three quarter windows, carbon seats, bonnet and front wings, and lightweight wheels contribute to a wet weight of just 1360kg.
So it’s safe to say it will be a fairly good handler, more so than any road-going 911 that’s gone before it, but should we care?
Do we really need a 911 more hard-core than the normal GT3, let alone the RS?
I suppose this doesn’t matter too much as the RS 4.0 will be limited to just 600 units, most of which will undoubtedly be snapped up by collectors and/or profiteers looking to sell it later on the internet.
Although race drivers have been known to buy limited edition 911s.
But it is not just scarcity that gives this car its significance – this will be the last 911 built on the 997 chassis and body style.
Of course I’m sceptical of this supposed fact, but judging by the advanced stage of testing the next-generation 911 has reached (something a quick Google will reveal), the current car has only a few months left in it.
So if this is true, I think the GT3 RS 4.0 is a fitting sayonara to the 997.
It is neither some bloated extravagance with all the bells and whistles and a stratospheric price tag (Speedster), nor an overpowered mentalist whose performance potential could never really be reached by anyone other than Walter Röhrl (GT2 RS).
The RS 3.8 is in my opinion the best drivers’ car in Porsche’s range (although far from the best all-rounder) and much of the world’s motoring press has gone so far as to deem it the best among the competition too.
The improvements made to that car to achieve this RS 4.0 are all very subtle and very pure.
Increased displacement and race-car engine internals to give it its specific output of 92kW per litre; weight loss comes in the form of lighter components and deleted luxuries; race-inspired aero abounds – it’s all very mechanical.
The forthcoming model (dubbed 991 internally) will focus on making the 911 more efficient, cleaner and more comfortable.
It will be faster too, but I fear it will not be without heavy compromise to the feel of the car, much like BMW whose new electric steering system has all but robbed it of its Ultimate Driving Machine title.
Here’s hoping Porsche sticks to its guns and makes more cars like this one.
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