We like
Surprisingly benign for a razor-sharp track-ready beast, industrial-strength performance, sensory delights

Room for improvement
Struggles with rough road surfaces and cambers, zero storage

Overview

RESPLENDENT – or, to some, repulsive – in $32,440 worth of Ruby Star paintwork with large decals (another $1590), plenty of contrasting naked carbon-fibre weave (part of the $76,420 Weissach package) and the sheer number of conspicuous aerodynamic accoutrements, this Porsche GT3 RS is a car that wears its intentions on its sleeve.

 

Those intentions might be Lambo-levels of flamboyance or projecting the image that this is a barely road-legal race car. In this colour scheme, it certainly has a foot in both camps.

 

It’s tempting to nerd out over the technical details of this vehicle so numerous as to warrant their own encyclopedia or philosophise about the fairness of how Porsche and its dealers allocate a global production run of around 5000 units.

 

But there’s a pinkish-purplish Porsche on the driveway and I have the colour-matched key.

 

Our Opinion

Despite its wild looks, a downright intimidating naturally aspirated 386kW/465Nm and the prospect of a $670,660 insurance claim (including a heady $133,060 worth of options) if the unthinkable were to happen, the first surprise – once I’d settled behind the bamboozling steering wheel into barely adjustable carbon-fibre bucket seats with full race harnesses – was how docile this car felt to drive around town and easy to get along with on the motorway.

 

I had recent experience of the Boxster-based 718 Spyder RS, which felt truly hardcore and cantankerous at low speed, so for the bigger sibling to feel so user-friendly and capable of longer journeys took some mental recalibration. You could almost daily this thing.

 

Almost. For starters, the RS loses the regular GT3’s frunk to aerodynamic aids and the roll cage makes it difficult to load anything behind the seats. Good job I had a Mitsubishi Triton to serve as tender during a weekend away with this particular Porsche.

 

Porsche provides four – yes four – dials for dynamic setup including suspension (nine stages for compression and rebound with separate adjustment for front and rear), stability control (three settings plus off), traction control (eight settings plus off), differential lock (nine steps for throttle off and another nine for throttle on) along with three pre-set drive modes.

 

At their default settings (further tweaks are available through touchscreen menus), the GT3 RS is compliant enough for Australian main roads. Could be the helper springs that are exclusive to the RS suspension setup.

 

To give you an idea of how right the factory suspension settings are, Jorg Bergmeister set a 6:49:3 time around the Nurburgring Nordschliefe with front rebound dialled up by two clicks and rear rebound up by three.

 

I told you it’s easy to get nerdy about this car. That said, for all its adjustability the GT3 RS was anything but comfortable on parts of our road test route in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland, where a Noosa resident named Mark Webber is known to take his Porsches and motorcycles for a fang.

 

I’m sure he’d reserve GT3 RS seat time for the track and here’s why.

 

No amount of knob-twirling could overcome the GT3 RS wheel and tyre package – 275/30/20 up front and 335/30/21 at the rear – which I suspect were responsible for making it a camber-following, bump-steering handful that fought back hard enough that I was forced to slow down considerably on roads the 718 Spyder RS and 911 S/T demolished.

 

Despite downforce not really coming into its own until license-jeopardising velocities – 409kg at the double ton and 860kg at 285km/h – the veritable suite of clever aerodynamic ideas on this car seemed to be doing their thing on sweeping sections of smoother, faster roads.

 

You see, compared with other high-end Porsches on the same roads, in the GT3 RS I could sense an almost supernatural stability while carrying high corner speeds, where I caught myself muttering “I don’t need to slow down for this one, or this one…”

 

It was at complete odds with the edgy behaviour on some tighter twisties, where poor corner surfaces elicited some un-Porsche-like abrupt interventions from the stability and traction control systems despite the fact that to me it felt as though there was more than enough grip and traction for the steering and throttle inputs.

 

On the other hand, with some surfaces the juddering was such that maintaining accuracy of pressure on that oh-so-responsive right pedal became a challenge.

 

This was the only scenario in which I felt not quite in charge of the otherwise collaborative GT3 RS – a reminder that this is a car that demands respect.

 

While these foibles could probably be dialled out by finding the right combination of settings and approach, I’d be tempted to just avoid a handful of roads the GT3 RS isn’t compatible with.

 

All part of the package when driving a razor-sharp thoroughbred, right?

 

Sure, but apart from those few notable exceptions, the GT3 RS felt scalpel-accurate, even while exhibiting the benign personality that pervades when just driving from A to B, making you constantly aware of the Jeckyll-and-Hyde potential on offer (if the visual and audible cues weren’t enough of a constant reminder).

 

The steering is responsive and communicative without being exhaustingly chattery and despite revving to 9000rpm and the PDK automatic transmission’s instantaneous progress through its seven ratios – in either direction – there is a predictable linearity to the power and torque delivery (strong everywhere and instantaneously ballistic when mashing the accelerator from anywhere above 2800 revs).

 

Even the immense standard brakes that take plenty of public road punishment in their stride have plenty of pedal feel.

 

At the centre of it all is that 4.0-litre flat-six engine, an absolute standout. At full throttle, it sounds like no other, it pulls hard to 9000rpm (although that is difficult to achieve legally on the public road) and the induction noise makes the experience even better.

 

This alone is enough to justify Porshe’s investment in carbon-neutral synthetic petrol.

 

How such a high-revving, high specific-output naturally aspirated engine does all this without feeling lumpy at low revs or lacking in torque is a miracle of modern engineering. It’s responsive pretty much everywhere, and predictable with it.

 

Along with tractability, refinement is another unexpected bonus. This is not a quiet car by any stretch, but surprisingly, it’s not as rough as you’d expect.

 

The Porsche 911 GT3 RS with Weissach Pack is not as uncompromising as it looks but truly shines on the right surface, where it feels invincible, rewarding precise driving and putting you at the centre of the action.

 

I didn’t drive it on track but it was clear on many levels that a circuit would be its happy place – yet I’d no doubt have a decent time driving it there and back too.

 

More surprising is how decent this car is for more mundane journeys, while delivering plenty of theatre and sense of occasion along for the ride. As you’d expect for the investment.

 

Talking of investments, your detailer will have quite the time looking after a GT3 RS – its numerous air vents and channels don’t half spread road grime into interesting patterns and places.