Porsche’s worst-kept secret has officially been revealed, and it has not 650, not 660, not 680, but a full 700 PS!
The 2010 Porsche 911 GT2 RS Type 997 was a mental wild animal on steroids as it was. Stock. What it essentially was, was a Porsche 911 Turbo S with 90 PS more, minus the automatic box and four-wheel-drive, and some 200 kg less, too, thanks to carbon-fibre in all the right places and then some. With its 620 PS and six-speed manual driving the rear wheels, it was the fastest way to go backwards into a tree or off a cliff with one wrong move of the left foot. With a 330 km/h top speed and many a hair-raising moments getting there, it lasted a little after its racing class was discontinued.
Forget the history lesson, half a decade later, it’s back!
The 2018 911 GT2 RS Type 991.II is everything we hoped it would be, almost. We said it would be about 660 PS or more, and that it would be light. And, here it is! With 700 PS and a 1,470 kg (with a full tank) and an optional Weissach Package lowering the weight by a further 30 kg, the GT2 RS will accelerate (and I use the term loosely here) from zero to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds and go on to 340 km/h. The package may be optional, but, and let’s not discount the €285,220 (Rs 2.1 crore) price-tag, there’s a lot of standard kit. Ultra High Performance Tyres (265/35 ZR 20 front and 325/30 ZR 21 rear)? Standard. Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes? Standard. Rear-axle steering? Standard. Sports seats in red, roll cage scaffolding (much thicker piping than the GT3) in the back? All standard. Sport Chrono Package. Er. Still optional…
Those are all seemingly meaningless details, because, with 700 PS and 750 Nm from the uber-tuned 3.8-litre boxer-six, this time going only through a seven-speed PDK to the rear wheels, the GT2 RS will deliver the thrill of all thrills in these dying moments of mad car breeds. It should be right up there with the best of them, nipping at their tail and making the big names break into sweat at every corner. We also have a feeling they will be at the good ol’ Nürburgring soon enough. It has quite a few targets: 7’18 of its 997 predecessor, 6’57 of its biggest, most exclusive sibling, and, of course, 6’52.1 of its own cousin, needless to say, the 6’43.22 set by a certain British race-car-for-the-road with road-legal tyres.
No word on whether it will come to India (the last one did) but if it does, it will be in the region of Rs 3.8 crore or higher. It’s a different plane. It’s a vastly different car (remember, it launched at E3 – the electronic expo as the cover model for Forza Motorsport 7). It got its nickname, the Widowmaker, for a reason. Like we’ve said before, there’s a fine line between mechanical brilliance and absolute insanity and the edge of reason, and the GT2 RS straddles it every step of the way.
Story: Jim Gorde
Pingback: Porsche 911 GT2 RS Launched In India | Car India: India's leading dedicated car magazine | Latest News, Scoops, Reviews and Specs