Often with spy shots, it’s the smallest details that make all the difference. Take the Porsche prototype seen here, for instance. At first glance, it looks like one of the many well-worn GT3 RS prototypes we spotted testing before the production car was launched in the summer of 2022, but our scoop photography contacts tell us it’s the new GT2 RS, the GT3’s turbocharger brother.

But when we dug back through the GT3 RS spy shots we’d published over the last three years, we found a story from September 2021 in which one of the GT3s can clearly be seen brandishing the same LB:XF4001 license plate worn by the 911 in this latest set of scoop pics purportedly showing a GT2 RS lapping the Nurburgring.

So is Porsche simply using this old GT3 RS prototype to trial future upgrades for the GT3, or is it really going to town on the whole sustainability thing and decided to rebuild the old test car as a GT2 RS? We can’t know for certain, but the spy photographer who took these images said this car definitely sounded like it was running a turbocharged flat-six, and not the GT3’s high-revving naturally aspirated version, which has a very different sound signature.

Related: Next Porsche 911 GT2 RS Will Be A 700-HP Hybrid Missile, Report Claims

Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?

We can also see that this hack looks subtly different from the last time we saw it. In fall 2021 its rear quarter panel air intakes – a feature on the production GT3 RS – were covered over, but now they’re fully exposed, and a GT2 RS would definitely need that supply of cold air, especially at the Nurburgring.

It’s also now wearing the roof vanes and hood vent aero trim that is present on the showroom GT3 RS but were missing from this car 19 months ago, though all of the other aero bits are still either covered over, crudely obscured, or missing, like the fins that should be behind each rear wheel.

Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?

But that’s not all about the rear of this prototype that’s intriguing. The rear bumper appears to have swollen, just above the license plate, and below the plate, there’s something odd about the center exhaust setup. It looks like they might be fake pipes, and that the real exhaust system exits through the two long, narrow, sausage-shaped openings on either side of them, sandwiched between the bumper and the diffuser.

Transforming the old GT3 into a GT2 wouldn’t be a quick job if rumors of the new GT2’s powertrain are to be believed. Autocar recently reported that the next GT2 would adopt hybrid technology developed for Porsche’s 919 and 963 Le Mans endurance racers and would deliver upwards of 700 hp (710 PS) to the rear wheels through a compulsory PDK dual-clutch transmission.

Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?
Has Porsche Recycled An Old GT3 RS Test Car To Make A GT2 Prototype?

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