Porsche is setting up a killer one-two punch for this year’s Frankfurt auto show. Alongside its range-topping 911 Turbo, the company will debut its most visceral offering, the snarling 2010 911 GT3 RS. Based on the already primal GT3, the RS gets another 15 hp from the 3.8-liter flat-six for a total of 450, or more than 118 hp per liter. A racing machine tamed for street use, the GT3 RS is hardly just about horsepower. It gets a wider track, it weighs less, and it produces more downforce than the GT3.
Shift Your Own or Stay at Home
Like in the GT3, the only available transmission is a six-speed manual gearbox. Although the case is shared with the GT3, the ratios are even shorter than that car’s already abbreviated gearsets. Porsche’s active engine mounts will be standard.
Front and rear tracks are widened by 1.7 and 1.0 inches, respectively, with 19-inch wheels wrapped in sticky 245/35 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires up front and honking 325/30s in the rear. The wider hips from all-wheel-drive 911s cover the rear rubber, while the front fenders get subtle wheel-arch extensions. More noticeable is the gorgeous rear wing, a sweep of carbon fiber supported by artistic aluminum struts and capped with contrasting-color end blades, and that provides substantial gains in downforce. The pictures seen here show a roll cage that won’t be available in the U.S. It is standard in Europe, but our regulators are too afraid of rich people cracking their heads like watermelons.
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Lighter, Faster, and Flashier
Other RS-specific bits include a titanium rear muffler and exhaust tips that together save 13 pounds—and will no doubt contribute to a spine-tingling scream from the flat-six as it nears its 8500-rpm redline. A lithium-ion battery will save an additional 20 pounds or so, according to Porsche. Altogether, the RS weighs just 3020 pounds, making it more than 50 pounds lighter than the GT3. Porsche says the result of the weight savings, additional power, and improved gearing will be a 0-to-60-mph blast of 3.8 seconds and 100 mph in 8.1 seconds. Top speed will be 193 mph.
This most-special 911 will continue the RS tradition of wild paint schemes, and will be available in two standard hues—Carrara (yeah, that’s really how Porsche spells the color) White and Aqua Blue Metallic—or Grey Black at added cost. Each color is paired with one of two available contrasting graphic colors, either Guards Red or White Gold Metallic.
The 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS will go on sale in Germany in January and make its way to the U.S. early in the spring of 2010 at a base price of $132,800. That’s a premium of $19,650 over, um, slower GT3s. You’ll spend that much on your first major service with either the GT3 or the RS, so why not upgrade?
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