The Porsche 911 GT2 RS represents the pinnacle of Porsche’s most famous family of models and CarWow recently put it through its paces.
Presented to the world roughly two-and-a-half years ago, the 911 GT2 RS shows that, despite the 911 still featuring a rear-engined layout, Porsche’s engineers are so good at what they do that the car can outperform many supercars which, with their mid-engined layouts, should be superior.
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Power is provided by a 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged flat-six with 690 hp and 553 lb-ft (750 Nm) of torque sent to the rear wheels through a seven-speed PDK dual-clutch transmission. One could be forgiven for thinking that in a world where vehicles like the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ and Ferrari 812 Superfast are producing almost 800 hp, the GT2 RS could almost be considered underpowered.
However, numbers only tell part of the story. Jumping behind the wheel of the car reveals that Porsche has engineered a near-perfect chassis that offers stunning handling characteristics and encourages drivers to push it harder and harder. Should it come unstuck, though, it can bite, hence its well-deserved (if a little macabre) ‘Widowmaker’ nickname that has become synonymous with the GT2 RS.
After it was released, the GT2 RS set a new production car lap record around the Nurburgring, lapping the German circuit in just 6 minutes and 47.3 seconds. That time was only beaten last year by the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ with a time of 6:44.97.