Porsche’s 996 GT3 RS Is the Forbidden Fruit We Never Got Stateside
It’s a shame we never got the 996 GT3 RS in the U.S., as Matt Farah finds out it’s really truly a special car.
Fans of the 996 Porsche 911 might not like what Matt Farah has to say about that generation of car. In fact, the title of his latest One Take says it all. “The Porsche 996 GT3 RS Is the Only *Truly* Special 996.” So there you have it. If you have a Turbo, or a C4S, or any other variant, consider it just a 996. Why? Because he believes the GT3 RS is really that good.
Porsche invited Farah out to the Porsche Experience Center to drive a host of different Porsches from the Porsche Museum. He was immediately drawn to the 996. “This is only the second or third one of these I’ve ever even seen in my life, let alone drive it,” Farah notes. That rarity is due to the fact this car wasn’t sold in the US or Canada.
The GT3 RS was, of course, a more extreme version of the GT3. It had polycarbonate windows, it was lighter, had Porsche’s Carbon Ceramic Brakes. And the Mezger engine, displacing 3.8 liters, was claimed to make 380 horsepower. Farah notes that dyno runs put it closer to 400.
All of that lead to really impressive performance for the day. Farah notes, “it ran a 7;43 at the Nurburgring, which today, the Panamera Turbo S will beat that. But seventeen year back, that was a massive achievement.”
On track, the GT3 RS really shines. Even on a tight circuit, Farah can tell the nuances of this car’s handling over it’s lesser stablemates. “Really any criticism about the 996 generation of cars really cant apply to this because it’s just so much better,” he adds.
After some mathematics about when this car can be legally imported under the 25 year import law, Farach concludes his short sprint with the car. But not before coming away hugely impressed. He emotes, “When they finished this car and drove it, they realized they had something very very special. And that was something worth continuing to invest in.” As such, we’ve had successive generations of GT3 RS models, all thanks to the impressive traits of the 996 version.
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