Lord Of The Ring

The Nurburgring-conquering 911 GT3 RS is a road-legal track Porsche that deserves to be on every petrolhead’s bucket list.

- Edric Pan

THERE, in the email invite to the press drive of Porsche’s latest 991.2 GT3 RS, was the thrilling promise – “test drive at the Nurburgring”.

Driving the legendary, fearsome 20.8km-long Northern Loop (Nordschleife) of the Nurburgring racetrack in Germany is on every petrolhead’s bucket list. And to do it in the new GT3 RS, no less – I thought Christmas had come early.

But a few days before my trip, the sheepish clarification came – I would not be sampling the GT3 RS on the fabled Nordschleife, but on the newer, shorter and more sanitised Nurburgring Grand Prix track next door.

Visiting the Nurburgring and not driving the Nordschleife is like going to Morton’s and just ordering the salad, or travelling to the Maldives and spending your whole stay indoors watching TV. Suddenly I was a lot less thrilled about the trip. 

But then again, Porsche probably knew that letting a bunch of over-eager journos loose in this devastatingly fast car to acquaint themselves with such a daunting track was not a great idea. For the GT3 RS, lest we forget, is effectively a road-legal track car, an even more extreme device than the already hardcore 911 GT3. Just how many road cars come with a roll cage, as the GT3 RS does?

Naturally, Porsche has upped the ante with the latest version. Mounted in the rear is a hotter version of the all-new 4-litre flat-6 engine which debuted last year in the current GT3, which revs even higher than before (to 9000rpm, while the engine in the previous 991.1 GT3 RS stopped play at 8800rpm).