New Porsche 911 GT2 RS seen in the snow ~ station of gear

Rear-wheel-drive, turbocharged Porsche 911 GT2 RS to have around 700bhp and a PDK auto when it goes on sale.

2016-03-10 16:13

The boss of Porsche’s GT division has admitted that the firm will introduce a turbocharged, rear-wheel-drive GT2 RS late in the life of the current 991-edition 911 - and now the car itself has been spied undergoing winter testing.

The most powerful version of the 911 is likely to offer almost 700bhp from its twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre engine - and will mate that with chassis and suspension components from the GT3 RS, including that car’s retuned dual-clutch PDK transmission and its highly rated power steering set-up. The test mule shows a different exhaust that’s probably designed to help the GT2 RS’s engine breathe more efficiently.

Speaking at the recent Geneva Motor Show, Porsche’s GT chief Andreas Preuninger said his engineers were working on a new GT2 RS. “We’ve always had a GT car with a turbo; that’s a different customer, a different line,” he said. “The ‘kick in the butt’ that you get with a turbocharged engine; this has some sexiness as well. We wouldn’t want to ditch that model so it might be we’re thinking of working on something like that.

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Image 3 of 11

Preuninger suggested, though, that as with the previous 997-generation 911, the new GT2 RS is likely to arrive pretty late in the life of the current 991. That could mean a debut as late as 2018. “We cannot exactly say it’s the right time for a particular model because we need the production capability,” he said. “We can only do one launch at a time. We have to look across the life cycle of all the models and decide when the perfect time is for something like this. But yes, a car like the GT2 RS makes most sense towards the end of the life cycle of each model.”

Porsche is likely to resist the temptation to offer a manual gearbox with the GT2 RS or GT3 RS - although the new transmission from the 911 R is set to be offered on the GT3. “There would be no sense in offering a GT3 RS with a manual gearbox because on some tracks it would mean that an ‘ordinary’ GT3 with a PDK gearbox would be as quick or quicker. RS must always be quickest on the track,” said Preuninger.

Do you like the look of the new GT2 RS? Let us know in the comments section below...

John McIlroy

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