Porsche Celebrates RS Models At The World's Greatest Road Race

Great road, great car.

The latest piece of wicked metal to roll out of Weissach traveled to the home of the world's greatest road race for a special family reunion. Cue the Isle of Man: Home to MotoGP star Cal Crutchlow, this tiny island has hosted the world famous Isle of Man Tourist Trophy road race since 1907, in which competitors compete for the best time on the 37-mile mountain course on some of the most demanding roads on earth. Porsche feels the trust that riders put in their bikes is the perfect metaphor for the qualities of the 911 GT3 RS.

Its constant and detailed feedback to the driver make this Porsche thrive on the historic TT course. Joining a pair of 991.2 cars on the Isle of Man is a mouth-watering line-up of historic Porsches, ranging from the previous generation 991.1 and spans all the way back to the first 2.7 RS – the car that started it all. For 50 weeks of the year, the Snaefell Mountain Course is a regular road with houses, shops, and towns littering the way. So while the priceless convoy snakes through the tiny island past famous landmarks like the Ballaugh Bridge or Parliament Square in Ramsey, locals are busy going about their business. Immune to the high speed procession.

The GT3 RS comes into its own as the roads narrow and twist. Porsche says the proximity of the grassy verges demands concentration, but the unforgiving road is exactly the kind of environment the GT3 RS thrives in, using it’s mid-range punch and insane grip to navigate safely. Improvements to the car, like a faster PDK shift time, modifications to the rear axle steering, new spring rates, and 8 per cent more aero downforce make themselves noticeable. “The streets are not exactly a race track around here – they’re very bumpy and more like a British B road – but the car is coping very well,” says Andreas Preuninger, Director GT Model Line “It is very precise, it has a lot of traction and it’s a joy to drive it on these roads.”

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Aston Martin Valkyrie Claims World’s Most Powerful Engine Title

At least for engines not aided by one of those newfangled turbochargers

While turbocharging has boosted power and torque outputs to new levels, naturally aspirated engines can still be found at the core of some of the very best supercars on the roads today. Their instantaneous power delivery and ability to deliver a knock-out blow at very high revs makes them the purists choice.

If all goes to plan, the Aston Martin Valkyrie will arrive later this year and when it does it will have the most powerful naturally aspirated engine ever fitted to a road car. Cosworth announced on Tuesday that its 6.5-liter V12 will make a massive 1,130hp, around 10% more than the 1,000hp that was hinted at during development. The amount of power assistance provided by the hybrid battery system has not been revealed just yet though.

Cars like the Lamborghini Huracan Performante, Porsche 911 GT3 and Ferrari GTC4 Lusso all have high-revving atmospheric engines that deliver massive performance without the aid of forced induction. In recent years, the title of most powerful production atmospheric engine has been ping-ponging between Ferrari and Lamborghini with the 789-hp 6.5-liter V12 in the 812 Superfast currently claiming the crown.

A fairer comparison though would be with hypercars like the 950-hp LaFerrari and 887-hp Porsche 918 Spyder, which both make use of hybrid assistance to boost their outputs but even these cars will be put into the shade when the Valkyrie arrives.

This Aston’s output also eclipses all but the most powerful turbocharged super and hypercars. Aside from very limited production vehicles such as the hybrid Koenigsegg Regera, the 1,479-hp Chiron and its predecessor, the 1,184hp Veyron Super Sports, are the only rivals that produce more power.

And they need four turbos and an 8.0-liter 16-cylinder engine to do it. Perhaps the days of the naturally aspirated engine are not as numbered as everyone thought, especially when combined with some even more newfangled hybrid assistance. Of the 175 examples slated for production (which includes the track-focused AMR variants) exactly 0 are still available to buy, so this tech makes it into a few more modern hypercars.

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