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2011 Porsche 911 GT2 RS
Let the drooling begin! Porsche has unveiled the official details on the most powerful street-legal model they have ever built. Limited to only 500 units, the new 911 GT2 RS officially went on sale last October in the USA on a reservation basis and was sold out in a matter of hours. Yeah, it sold out faster than an Eminem CD at Target. The new GT2 RS is the most powerful production car in Porsche’s long and storied history and, as such, it smokes the standard GT2 - and every other Porsche model in history, for that matter - out of the water. Porsche managed to reduce the weight by 154 lbs and upgrade the engine’s output with 90 horsepower (for a total of 620 horsepower). This makes the RS sprint from 0 to 62 mph in 3.5 seconds, 0 to 124 mph in just 9.8 seconds, and 0 to 186 mph in 28.9 seconds. Top speed is 205 mph. The sports car also delivers a power-to-weight ratio of 4.9 lb per horsepower and has a reported Nurburgring time of seven minutes and 18 seconds. UPDATE 08/29/11: Road & Track has come out with a pretty cool review of the 911 GT2 RS, considered as the fastest production Porsche in the world. You can check it out after the jump as R&T takes it for a shakedown at the Miller Motorsports Park factory driver Patrick Long manning the controls. Details after the jump, including a video of the 911 GT2 RS finally touching down in North America. Full story Top Gear USA: Season 2 Episode 5
  Right off the bat, we have to admit that this week’s episode of Top Gear USA was a lot funnier than any other episode this season. The majority of the episode was spent trying to figure out which of the three hosts chose a better luxury car. However, instead of being the long and drawn out segment as found in previous episodes, this challenge made us laugh out loud a few times. The guys were driving around the Hamptons in a 1972 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, a 1982 Jaguar XJS, and a 1988 Pontiac Fiero turned Ferrari 308. Oh yeah, the Hamptonites just loved that. In between the search for the best luxury car for $5,000, Tanner Foust got to take a spin in "the Beast," the Porsche 911 GT2 RS and Torchwood star, Arlene Tur took a speedy trip around the Top Gear test track in the Suzuki SX4. Hit the jump for full details on Top Gear USA: Season 2 Episode 5. Full story The Car Show: Season 1 Episode 1
We can’t say that we were looking forward to the premiere episode of The Car Show, simply because we didn’t feel that Adam Carolla was going to be all that funny. If he was, then The History Channel would have considered keeping him as part of the Top Gear USA trio. Turns out, we were absolutely wrong. Adam Carolla may be a jumbling, mumbling mess at times, but his delivery actually makes him a bit funnier. It helps that he was teamed up with Dan Neil (automotive columnist for The Wall Street Journal), John Salley (4-time NBA Champion and actor), and Matt Farah (SmokingTire.com), who seemed to deliver more chemistry in the first episode of The Car Show than Tanner Foust, Adam Ferrara, and Ruttledge Wood had in their entire first season. Don’t get us wrong, we actually like Top Gear USA, but we may like The Car Show even better so far. Hit the jump for details on the first episode of The Car Show. Full story 2011 Porsche GT2 RS Pikes Peak
On June 26, 2011, Jeff Zwart drove a Porsche GT2 RS right into a record setting time for street homologated sports cars at the famous Pikes Peak Race to the Clouds in Colorado. The last thing we would think Porsche would want to do is sell this same car only days after the event, but that is exactly what the company is doing. Talk about striking while the iron is hot. The record setting GT2 RS was was only slightly modified for safety reasons, so it now includes a roll cage for maximum protection and a modified dashboard to display information needed during the race. The passenger seat was also removed. Other than that, the Porsche only received a bright red paint job along with a carbon fiber roof and racing stickers. Under the hood of the GT2 RS Pikes Peak racer is the standard 3.6 liter six-cylinder boxer engine found in the typical GT2 RS. This engine delivers a total of 620 HP and sprints the car from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, 0 to 124 mph in just 9.8 seconds, and 0 to 186 mph in 28.9 seconds. Top speed is 205 mph. This special GT2 RS is currently on sale at Champion Porsche in Pompano Beach, Florida, who brag about being the #1 world’s largest Porsche dealership. This may be a unique opportunity for fans of Pikes Peak and Porsche fans alike to own a little piece of history. And as Champion Motorsport says: "From Pikes Peak to your garage or a track near you… definitely a nice perk I’d say." Porsche wants another sportscar between the 911 GT2 RS and 918 Spyder
Something’s cooking in the Porsche headquarters and knowing these guys, it could only mean thing: a new car. The buzz going on around Stuttgart is that Porsche is looking into introducing a new supercar, one that will sit between the 911 GT2 RS and the 918 Spyder. The rationale behind this idea is that the company wants a car that can bridge the price tag gap between the 911 GT2 RS, which retails for $338,500, and the 918 Spyder, which will sell for $1.1 million. In an interview with Bloomberg, Porsche sales boss, Bernhard Maier, commented about the company looking into the idea of introducing a new Porsche supercar. "We’re currently examining what options can be derived from this gap in the product range," Maier said. "Between the top 911 model and the 918 Spyder, there’s a price range that we’re not serving, but where other manufacturers are selling one or another product." Just so we know what Porsche is getting into, the new 911 GT2 RS is powered by a 3.6 liter six-cylinder boxer engine that’s boosted by two turbochargers, produces 620 horsepower with a 0 to 62 mph time of just 3.5 seconds, a top speed of 205 mph, and an impressive Nurburgring lap time of seven minutes and 18 seconds. Meanwhile, the 918 Spyder is powered by a V8 engine that produces more than 500 horsepower and three electric motors with an overall output of 218 horsepower. The numbers translate to a 0-60 mph time of just 3.2 seconds with a top speed of 198 mph and a Nurburgring lap time of under 7:30. Video: Jeff Zwart breaks record at Pikes Peak with Porsche 911 GT2 RS
The fallout from this year’s electrifying Pikes Peak International Hill Climb continues to flood the web weeks after the dust settled on the mighty Colorado mountain. We’ve already seen video of Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima’s record-breaking run in the Race to the Clouds, but what was lost in all the adulation surrounding the event’s first sub 10-minute time was another record-shattering run by Jeff Zwart. As the record-holder of the 2WD Time Attack class, Zwart took his stock Porsche 911 GT2 RS up the steep slopes of Pikes Peak to post a time of 11:07:869, smashing the record for a stock production car at Pikes Peak by more than 24 seconds. Unfortunately, even this scintillating run wasn’t enough for Zwart to win the 2WD Time Attack class as that honor went to Pikes Peak legend Rod Millen, who eclipsed Zwart’s time by just three seconds. Having said that, Millen’s time came at the expense of a race-spec machine that produced well over 700 horsepower. We normally don’t celebrate runner-up finishes, but we’re going to make an exception this time around. The fact that Zwart was able to accomplish what he did with a stock production 911 GT2 RS speaks volumes of what this man is capable. Check out the video of Zwart’s run to the top of Pikes Peak in the video above! 2008 Porsche 997 GT2 by McChip
The last time we heard from Mcchip dkr, they were working on a speedier version of the Volkswagen Golf R. Not a bad gig, but they’ve come a long way since then, baby. Their latest tuning project was hooking up the most powerful Porsche 911 in the line-up: the Porsche 997 GT2. The upgrade package starts off with the addition of modified turbochargers and high-performance charge air coolers. These coolers include a silicone Tube Set, Cargraphic 200-cell sport catalysts, and manifolds. These extras build up the 3.6L engine to deliver 657 HP and 615 lb-ft of torque, up from the standard 523 HP and 502 lb-ft of torque. Mcchip dkr could have pumped even more torque out of the GT2 - over 664 lb-ft, in fact -, but since the car already has an uncontrollable amount of power, they thought it best to keep it dialed down so the vehicle could still be controlled on the race track. Anyone interested in putting a little more grunt into their Porsche 997 GT2 need to shell out 23,000 euro, or about $33,000 at the current exchange rates. 2011 Porsche 911 GT2 RS SP800R by Sportec
Just because the Porsche 911 GT2 RS is already a powerful car in its own right, it doesn’t mean that people will shy away from giving it higher levels of performance. At the Geneva Motor Show, German tuning firm Sportec showed that even a car as powerful as the 911 GT2 RS can still be tweaked to become more beastly than it already is. Taking a second upgrade program - the SP 800R – for the 911 GT2 RS, Sportec gave the Porsche’s 3.6-liter V6 boxer engine a thorough modification program featuring new sports camshafts, bigger air coolers, a new engine software, hybrid turbochargers, and a titanium exhaust system with a customized manifold. All these changes translate to an increased output of 800 horsepower and 900 Nm of torque. Mighty impressive, dare we say. The glorious performance modifications weren’t the only things Sportec worked on with the 911 GT2 RS. Addressing the need to give the car an aerodynamic boost, the German tuner also gave it new front and rear spoiler lips and a set of 20” seven-spoke black alloy wheels. All told, Sportec’s SP 800R program slashes four-tenths of a second off of the car’s 0-60 mph time time – 3.5 seconds to 3.1 seconds – while also ratcheting up the speed to 231 mph, which, if you don’t know, is nearing the stratosphere occupied by the McLaren MP4-12C and its 240 mph top speed. 2011 Porsche 911 GT2 RS by Techart
Sure we all want to take our turn driving around in the new 2011 Porsche GT2 RS. Unfortunately, with a limited run of 500 units and the fact that they have all been sold out already, chances of that happening are about slim to none. What makes the situation even more unfortunate for us is the fact that TechArt has already found a way to improve on Porsche’s most powerful street-legal model ever. Yeah, they are that good. To make our faces a darker shade of envy green, the German tuner has added a new set of their newly introduced Formula Race lightweight forged centerlock wheels and a new Noselift system to allow the Porsche to get safely over those pesky speed bumps. No need to enter your dipped driveway at an angle anymore - owners of low ride height vehicles know exactly what we mean - TechArt has made it so the front end of the 911 GT2 RS gets an additional 60mm of ground clearance with a touch of a button. This system also features a trouble-free backfitting, a rapid height adjustment of approximately 10 mm/s with particularly silent operation as well as fully integrated operation via a button with a status indicator at the roof console. Man, and we were banking on the fact that one of these owners would ding the front of their car and sell it to us for a cheaper price. There goes that idea! Nice work, TechArt. Another tuning job well done! TopSpeed’s Best of 2010: Sports Car of the Year
2010 has been quite a year for the auto industry’s sports car segment. With auto brands becoming more and more aggressive in their pursuit of power, speed, and consumer preference, sports cars have become about as popular in 2010 as Justin Bieber’s hairdo. So with all these choices, one can just imagine the painstaking labor we went through in determining our choices for the 2010 Sports Car of the Year. Of all the categories, this one was, without question, the hardest to agree on, especially when the multitude of choices available are considered. In the end, we did find a common ground in selecting the five best sports cars of the year, despite the fact that there were some arguments along the way. Of the five that we chose - one of them is a one-off sports car - four of them came from Europe whereas the only non-European sports car on the list calls the Land of the Rising Sun as its home. Head over to the list after the jump. Full story | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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