There's so much hype surrounding any high-performance variant of the Porsche 911. Every new car is the best one yet, the fastest one yet, or a proper chariot of the gods. Maybe that last sentiment is debatable. However, by dropping a naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-6 engine in the track-ready version of Porsche's eternal sports car, you can make a case that the new GT3 RS is the fastest and best yet.
Using launch control, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS springs forward with little drama or wheelspin. It simply hooks up and goes, snapping off shifts just shy of the 9,000 RPM redline. Watching the forward progress on the big tachometer is a bit surreal. The tachometer looks like one out of a vintage Porsche 356, a car with a redline of half the GT3's.
Listening to the sound of the flat-6 engine is an auditory treat. It sings a siren song, only instead of luring you on the rocks, it urges you to go faster. This car laps the Nurburgring in under seven minutes and does it with an aria of Porsche's most powerful naturally aspirated engine.
Perhaps that's what makes this video slightly disappointing. It's too short. At 54 seconds long, you get to see and hear the Porsche 911 GT3 RS at full fury, reaching a speed of 263 km or 163 mph from a standstill. But it's a feat it does twice in the video, taking only about 20 seconds to hit that number. It's a stunning feat of acceleration, but it's over too quickly.
Fortunately, there are other opportunities to see and hear the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. For a detailed look at the car, check out Seyth Miersma's First Drive Video Review, where he explains how "the new GT3 RS can be adjusted on the fly to suit any track or driver." And if you can't get enough of that sound, Porsche made a limited run of soundbars using the GT3's exhaust system.
