GT2 RS prototype
Remembering the time Andreas Preuninger took Total 911’s Kyle Fortune for a drive in the final 991 GT2 RS prototype ahead of the production car’s launch
We join Andreas Preuninger for final testing of the model that would reunite turbocharging with Porsche’s Rennsport recipe
I’m laughing. I can’t help myself, sitting on a plane home from Stuttgart, earphones in, transcribing the conversation I’ve recorded between myself and Porsche GT department’s Andreas Preuninger. I hear a 3.8-litre turbocharged engine roar as we chat. Nothing too amusing in that. Except my reaction. Even above the engine’s gloriously guttural note there’s a long expletive exclaimed in accompaniment. The GT2 RS will do that to you, its performance in a league that’s beyond the ordinary, even from something wearing a GT badge on its rump.
Only it isn’t. Being a prototype, even the crest on the bonnet is hidden, the rear a mix of GT3 RS panels, bonded-on disguising a pair of massive exhaust pipes, and good, old-fashioned tape. Not that there’s any hiding what this is, the GT2 RS not among Porsche’s best-kept secrets. It’s not like the 911 shape isn’t recognisable either, and just in case you were in any doubt, if those exhausts are hot you’ll see the catalysts glowing orange from behind. After seven years too, a new GT2 RS is arguably overdue, Preuninger admitting customers have been asking about a new one for some time.
Well it’s coming, officially, and we’ve been for a very early ride in it. So early that the first preproduction cars don’t actually start running down the line for another couple of weeks. It’s those cars that will homologate the figures for Porsche’s most extreme 911. This black, battle-scarred car represents 991 GT2 RS genesis, which somewhat explains why it looks like something of an engineering lash-up.
Not that Preuninger would ever describe his new baby as such. Underneath the black wrap there’s evidence of Lava orange, this GT2 RS starting life as a GT3 RS. The metamorphosis from a naturallyaspirated, 500hp, 4.0-litre car to a forced induction 3.8-litre is one that the GT man describes as a labour of love that’s accounted for many, many man hours.
Start pressing him on the details and it’s clear to see why. He’s quick to point out that the GT2 RS is very much not just a chipped Turbo S. Yes, the
9A1 engine block is the same, though there’s some differing machining, the internals being revised to cope with its greater output. Porsche isn’t prepared to admit how much yet, the only figure that’s being banded about being 650hp. Only there’s a greater than sign in front of that.
We’ve all read the rumours of how much more that might be, but until the actual number is properly homologated nobody’s officially saying anything. That’s true of the torque too, which is said to be in excess of the 750Nm quoted for the Turbo S.
Take those (rather conservative) figures and compare them to the 997 GT2 RS’S 612hp and 700Nm and even that’s quite a leap. Allowing it are new turbos and a higher boost pressure, though it’s the intercooling that’s most critical to the engine’s greater performance. There’s now spray-cooled intercoolers, these operating at higher temperatures, spraying a finely controlled mist of water onto the intercooler’s netting. The evaporation effect reduces the intake temperature by as much as 15 degrees. Given the 911’s inherent difficulty in thermal management because of its rear-engined configuration that’s a huge gain, and equally crucial in allowing the new GT2 RS’S monstrous performance.
The system itself is fed by a five-litre tank under the bonnet, which can be filled with regular water, Preuninger joking that it works best with the water from Weissach’s well. In normal use it’ll not need filling too often, but three hot laps of the Nürburgring should see it empty completely.
There is, as with its predecessor 997 GT2 RS, rear-wheel drive, Preuninger saying they debated using four-wheel drive but decided it would make it impossible to properly distance it from the Turbo S. That it saves around 50kg is handy too, the kerb weight goal being under 1,500kg (a Turbo S is quoted at 1,675kg, for comparison).
The manual six-speeder has gone, replaced by a seven-speed PDK. Preuninger is unapologetic, saying: “PDK is for the RS models, we like the idea of the driver’s cars. It is perfect for the GT3, but for anything with the RS badge on it we think it’s about lap times, about competition and the PDK has an absolute edge over everything else. With the amount of torque it has, it’s wise to have a PDK gearbox.” This fitting of PDK allows the fully electronically controlled reardifferential to feature, with 0-100% lock-up on offer.
Being rear-wheel drive, he admits that the GT2 RS will, inevitably,
“lose some traction from the get-go”, the official line being less than 3.0 seconds to 62mph, though the expectation is that it’ll meet and then beat any internal competition above that, being comfortably below nine seconds to 124mph (200km/h). Mighty quick, then, and in keeping with its top-dog 911 status, the top speed is anticipated to be in excess of 211mph (340km/h). They’ll find out in the next few weeks for sure, but the promise is for the fastest production 911 ever, which given the considerable downforce its revised bodywork will produce while it’s doing that is impressive indeed.
Creating that is a combination of elements.
The tall rear wing is an RS signature, held up on aluminium struts which, like the GT3 RS’S, is adjustable. There will be ducts venting above the front wheels, lowering pressure in the wheel wells, the treatment of which will be visually distinct to those featuring on the GT3 RS and, hence, this prototype. There’s a unique front end too, a more prominent splitter, the bumper here featuring GT2 RS lettering in the central intake. Those NACA ducts on the bonnet are there to accelerate air down and over the front discs for superior cooling of the standard PCCB brakes.
They’ll make it to production too, their benefit greater than merely brake cooling, contributing also to a lower coefficient of drag by reducing turbulent air over the car. Under the engine will be a more radical diffuser which, combined with all the other aerodynamic revisions, will produce downforce at its top speed slightly below 400kg, extraordinary for a road car.
The new GT2 RS is a car which, Preuninger admits, will look very different to this prototype here, saying it’ll be a loud car visually inside and out. Underlining that is the fact around 60 per cent of the 997 GT2 RSS were optioned with a red Alcantara interior similar to that of the prototype here. While that overt look might be against the company’s usual philosophy, it’s very much in keeping with the GT2 RS’S audience. The rear intakes fore of the rear wheel will again be bespoke for the GT2 RS, with the majority of the GT2 RS’S unique detailing being made of visible carbon fibre.
It will, claims Preuninger, “Say ‘here I am, I’m the king, I’m the alpha animal’. It’s an RS and RS means race, and that’s deliberate. We’ve been under attack regarding lap times, people keep telling us we’re only concentrating on old-school stuff like manuals and feeling and driveability – suggesting that’s only an excuse that we’re not fast enough anymore.
The GT2 RS is proof positive that those people are completely wrong.” It’s obviously – understandably – been around the Nürburgring then as part of its development and will, in due course, set a lap time. Like everything else numerical relating to the GT2 RS today, what it’ll be is very much open to speculation. Let’s just say very, very fast then, until we can put a real number to it, though the old car could do 7.18 and the 991.2 GT3’S achieved 7.12… Into the sixes?
If it wants to beat its rivals it’ll have to be. What’s impossible to ignore is the physicality of the thing.
Even fresh from the experience of the new GT3’S high rev potency, the GT2 RS feels on a different level. The brutality of the forces that engine places on you is 918-esque in its elasticity, if not having quite the Porsche hypercar’s ludicrous electrically-aided immediacy. It’s at its mightiest when already moving; the way the GT2 RS exploits the briefest gaps on the enlightened high-speed German roads is incredible.
Speeds of 100km/h, then 200km/h, then 300km/h are mentioned by Preuninger as they’re passed, seeing the rest of the traffic go into reverse as the
GT2 RS asserts its dominance.
Like that 918 Spyder, the GT2 RS will be offered with a Weissach pack which, if chosen (everyone will) should reduce the kerb weight by a further 30kg or so. Allowing that will be a titanium roll cage, it accounting for as much as 7kg, magnesium wheels that drop 12kg over the standard alloy ones (those sharing the 265/ZR20 front and rear 325/30 ZR21 sizes and coming shod with GT2 RS specific Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s). Also included is carbon-fibre anti-roll bars and other suspension elements in the lightweight weave. Even the standard magnesium roof is replaced by a carbon-fibre one with the Weissach pack. It is amazing that the GT department’s obsession with efficiencies and weight saving has found a way to make a carbon roof lighter than that once-lightest magnesium one.
Even so equipped, the GT2 RS isn’t wholly stripped of civility, Preuninger saying that with so much power on offer, taking out all the sound proofing just isn’t necessary. You’ll want to leave the radio and air conditioning in it, then, as everyone does, while the rear glass is exactly that – not Perspex, though it’s lightweight Gorilla Glass, of the type used in mobile phones.
If the engine dominates with its brutal, forceful shove and outrageous, rousing, blaring exhaust note, then the chassis is a bit more subtle. That’s despite rose joints throughout, the only link to the chassis not featuring a ball joint being that for the rear-wheel steering system. The dampers are upside-down racing items, with two modes, the spring rates the most extreme ever for a Porsche road car, basically being that of a Cup car set up for the Nürburgring. That’s double the spring rate up front compared to the new GT3.
On the (admittedly smooth) roads surrounding Weissach, it rides well, Preuninger describing the steering as immediate and rich in detail, allowing him to feel what’s going on at the front axle. That’s obvious given the speed he’s carrying, the turn-in clear in its immediacy, aided by the standard rearwheel steer. There’s obviously huge stability from the chassis and ridiculous levels of grip and traction, the GT2 RS monstering bends on the country roads around Weissach. There’s no slack, no body roll, the standard lightweight bucket seats a necessity to hold you tightly against the huge cornering forces. Without a steering wheel to hang onto it’s quite a ride.
“I like the absolute brutal power that this has. It’s a joy to drive on the track, it’s so precise, it’s so nimble and agile and a lot easier to drive than a 997 GT2 RS, which was a brute, to the point where you couldn’t handle it sometimes – and this one has way more power,” says Preuninger.
Of course we soon found out just what the 991 GT2 RS was all about, it being a hilarious, thrill-ride of a car, which is exactly as it should be: distinct, outrageous and, like the expletives it’s since forced from its passengers, more than a little bit rude.
“The expectation is that it’ll meet and then beat any internal competition”