Porsche 911 GT2

Welcome to the new 911 GT2 RS. Let’s talk about first and fourth gears. First gear is relatively long
for a first – when you pull away initially, before you get used to it, you give the clutch a dip because the ratio is a little taller than you expect, and you need to feed in a few more
revs to get it moving. First runs to 78kph, or 48mph at peak revs of 6,750rpm.
I’m here to tell you that when you launch this car at full throttle, first gear disappears faster than you could possibly imagine. The GT2 RS’s engine is a work of art – among its features are a lightweight single-mass flywheel (8kg lighter than its GT2 equivalent) and two variable-geometry vane turbochargers. This engine runs at 1.6 bar of boost. Not sure if you have a mental marker for bars of boost, but it’s time you did because 1.6 is a lot of bars – the standard 911 Turbo, for example, runs at only 0.8 bar.

Combine this enormous level of boost with the lightweight
flywheel, and factor in a racing-spec flat-six 3.6-litre base motor that is free-revving in normally aspirated form and you get an idea of what happens when you give the RS the full works in first gear. BANG and it’s gone in a microflash, leaving your gearchange hand lagging and your eyelids fluttering and the engine on the limiter the first time it happens. It is shocking, and looking at the figures, 62mph disappears in 3.5 seconds, so you’re hunting for second in about 2.5. Second continues the trend and revs equally quickly up to 80mph in a single, seamless surge, third gear gets you to 109mph and pulls with the same urgency as the first two, and then there’s fourth.

Fourth. Jesus H Christ, Fourth. This side of a Bugatti Veyron or a superbike, I have never experienced anything on the road like Fourth Gear In A 911 GT2 RS. It gets capital letters because it’s significant and it’s bent right out of proportion. The car pulls fourth like a quick hot-hatch pulls second – it is the same experience as the first three gears. I’m not joking: Fourth in a GT2
Porsche 911 GT2
Porsche 911 GT2
Porsche 911 GT2
Porsche 911 GT2
Porsche 911 GT2
Porsche 911 GT2
Porsche 911 GT2