It hasn’t been too long since Porsche unveiled the 992 GT3 to the public and it should be a spectacular car. The jump from the 991.2-gen to the 992-gen GT3 is one of the biggest we’ve seen in the history of Porsche’s GT department. But soon after unveiling the GT3, the number of sightings of the 992 Porsche 911 GT3 RS test mule have increased considerably, which hints to the fact that an official unveil is not too far away. That said, there’s already quite a lot you can gather from these test mules, and yes we’ll start with the elephant in the room.
When we saw the covers pulled back from the standard GT3’s swan neck wing, the world was in awe — this was a full-on RS-spec wing, perhaps even bigger than the one on the previous-gen GT3 RS. That said, it is almost tiny compared to what the GT3 RS is packing. The RS will retain the swan neck mounts but the wing now features two separate planes. A twin-element wing with a slot in the middle allows you to have a higher angle of attack without losing downforce. How? Put simply, the slot in the middle reduces flow separation, energises the boundary layer of the wing and keeps the wing efficient at steep angles too. We also recently got wind that the GT3 RS’ wing will be active and will work along the lines of Formula 1’s DRS system. The top element will be able to swivel parallel to the ground to greatly reduce drag, aiding straight line speed. These two elements combined with the fact that the wing itself is large enough to shelter four adults from a storm, should result in some seriously impressive downforce figures.
That massive rear wing isn’t the only thing Porsche will be changing up on the 992-gen GT3 RS. Not one to throw an excessive helping of power, Porsche will look to further optimise the GT3’s aero package to give it more gains on the racetrack. You can spot some of these changes on the test mule already — the vents on the front fenders, which reduce pressure building up in the wheel well, a more pronounced lip on the front bumper and the heavily camouflaged rear bumper also suggests some changes over there. The diffuser doesn’t look to different from the one in the standard GT3, although that could be a way to hide it before the unveil.
The GT3 RS is as track focused as Porsche’s GT department gets, except for the slightly bonkers GT2 RS perhaps, but the last few generations of the GT3 RS have been PDK-only and we expect this 992-gen RS to be the same. The engine will be the same four-litre, naturally-aspirated, flat-six unit from the standard GT3, but you can expect Porsche to slightly bump up the 503bhp and 470Nm output figures, if the 991.2 cars are an indication, these figures could be close to 523bhp and 480Nm. Another notable change we might see is an even higher redline! Okay, the standard GT3’s 9000rpm cut-off is already very high in this era of relatively lower-revving turbocharged cars. The 9500rpm redline would make it one of the highest-revving road cars of all time, and we know that the engine is capable of it because the 911 RSR has a 9500rpm limit. Aside from the RSR having different internals, reliability would become a concern too, since a racecar engine has to run fewer kilometres between services and Porsche wouldn’t want GT3 RS customers having to hire a support van for every drive.
These are some of the major details we know about the upcoming GT3 RS, but you can expect some really geeky details to crawl out of the press release once the car is officially unveiled. It is also all but confirmed that Porsche will be gunning for a stellar Nurburgring laptime and considering the 992 GT3 was a whole 17 seconds quicker than its predecessor, the new GT3 RS could be aiming to top the charts. That said, the AMG GT Black Series is still a full 12 seconds quicker than the GT3, so the GT3 RS will certainly have its work cut out.