Porsche 911 GT3 RS 2024 review – quite simply the best performance car on sale
Porsche’s most extreme GT3 RS yet is also one of the most captivating – it’s our reigning evo Car of the Year and Track Car of the Year champion
Don’t do it. Don’t fall into the trap of hating the 992-generation 911 GT3 RS because some people are willing to pay a vast premium over the already vast £192,600 asking price. Don’t roll your eyes and think, ‘Well, they’ll just sit in air-conditioned garages anyway.’ Besides, this is only partly true. For every 992 GT3 RS that will slip from one collector to the next without ever being truly exercised, there will be another that pounds around Silverstone, Spa and the Ring. Visit any trackday in the UK or Europe and you’ll see new and nearly new GT3s and RSs represented very strongly.
And this is where they deserve to be, because Porsche Motorsport’s engineers and test drivers sweated and toiled for these most enlightened customers. They pushed in every area to make a truly enthralling driver’s car with huge capability and endurance; their version of the ultimate track-focused 911. In fact, they went further than ever before. Just look at the 992 GT3 RS. You may not like the overall aesthetic, but it’s impossible to behold its distended, outrageous and brutally functional shapes and not conclude that no stone was left unturned in this project. It’s just plain bonkers.
We were blown away by the results of this intense development programme at both our 2023 evo Car of the Year and 2024 Track Car of the Year tests. The RS won both, demonstrating that Porsche’s ability to produce an utterly absorbing road car that can annihilate a racetrack is still in full force. The 992 RS is a fascinating, complex and breathtaking example of the breed.
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In-depth reviews
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- Porsche 911 (992.1, 2018-2024) – the 911 of the digital age
Reviews
Porsche 911 GT3 RS: in detail
- Engine, gearbox and technical highlights – Everything from the 4-litre flat-six to its adjustable suspension and Cup car-style aero screams motorsport
- Performance and 0-60 time – Absolute straight-line speed has been sacrificed in the pursuit of downforce, but the RS is still ballistic off the line
- Ride and handling – The RS has phenomenal breadth, precision and ability on everything from wet B-roads to Cadwell Park
- MPG and running costs – The RS is built to take serious track abuse, but set aside budget for consumables
- Interior and tech – The architecture is familiar 911, but the RS locks you in with carbon-backed bucket seats and a delightful suede wheel with magnetic shift paddles
- Design – A monstrous aero package and carbon parts mean it’s a sticker kit away from looking like a full-blown Cup car
Price and rivals
A £192,600 starting price puts the RS just behind the S/T as the most expensive 911 on sale (if you manage to get an allocation, that is), but we can tell you without reservation that the 992 GT3 RS is the biggest single step on in the RS lineage since the 996 GT3 RS arrived back in 2004. It’s a truly sensational machine. Even more dramatic in the metal than it is in pictures, it makes a 992 GT3 look like a Carrera and is worth the £50k list price premium on kerb appeal alone.
The McLaren Senna is perhaps the closest modern road car to the RS in terms of outright track focus, but Woking's offering was almost four times the price, and strictly limited to just 500 units.
You need to look at highly specialised, bespoke machinery to get anywhere near the RS’s blend of engagement on the road and circuit capability. At our 2024 Track Car of the Year test the RS was a few hundredths quicker than a Radical SR3 XXR around Cadwell Park, and 0.3sec quicker than Ariel’s Atom 4R. Only the Australian Spartan track car and Revolution racer beat it around the lap, which makes the RS something of a bargain as a do-it-all road and track machine.
Porsche 911 GT3 RS (992) specs
Engine | Flat-six, 3996cc |
Power | 518bhp @ 8500rpm |
Torque | 343lb ft @ 6300rpm |
Weight | 1450kg (363bhp/ton) |
0-62mph | 3.2sec |
Top speed | 184mph |
Basic price | £192,600 |