Cars

2010 Porsche 911 997 GT3 RS

Ah, the Porsche 911. Jeremy Clarkson, host of BBC’s Top Gear, once described the engineers and designers the laziest in the industry because they never actually restyled the car, only refreshed it. And why should they? For almost 50 years now the Porsche 911 has graced streets the world-over with its svelt rear-engined body. Emphasizing Jeremy’s point that the engineers are lazy they’ve “refreshed” the entire line-up with the Type 997.5 iteration halfway through the life cycle of the Type 997 body style, awaiting the Type 998 lineup in late 2011. The refresh took almost 2 years and is now complete with the release of the 997.5 GT3 RS.

The Porsche 911 GT3 is essentially the street-legal version of the 911 race car (originally for homological purposes) but quickly proved popular as sales figures show. Air conditioning, Sat/Nav, cruise control, and heated leather seats can all be had (actually, with the exception of Sat/Nav, they’re standard equipment) on this street-legal “race-car,” giving the driving enthusiast modern comforts and amenities without sacrificing much track performance. In fact, the suspension, gearing, ECU, some engine internals and a less aerodynamic body (producing more down force) are all that separates the GT3 from a “regular” 911.

The GT3 RS takes it one step furthur with some rather extreme weight reducing practices, taller gearing for a better bottom end and a slightly remapped ECU for better performance. For 2010, the GT3 RS receives a new 3.8L boxer flat-six producing close to 450HP (a 35HP increase over the outgoing 997 GT3 RS) and with a curb weight of just over 3,000 lbs the power-to-weight ratio works out to be close to 300HP/ton. Some examples of the extreme weight savings are a smaller fuel tank, the body emblems have been replaced with stickers and the wheel nuts have been replaced by a single titanium central-locking nut.

Today’s GT3 RS is the first one posted on eBay and is located nowhere else but in Beverly Hills, CA. Described by the seller as “barely street legal”  it comes in Carrera white with black alcantara and leather interior. Unique styling cues to the GT3 RS are the asymettrical GT3 RS badging (only on the port side of the car) and featuring (the signaturely random Porsche) seat belts in red. So if you’re looking for the ultimate streetable track-car, this car has just 16 miles on the clock and an opening bid of $170,000.

[wordbay](2010, 2011) 911 gt3[/wordbay]