Mathias Roll says his team worked through 1500 iterations of the car’s aero setup using motorsport-spec computational fluid dynamics software, and then spent a further 250 hours honing the hardware in the wind tunnel. The attention to aero detail throughout is astounding. Those are serious numbers, about the same as generated by Porsche’s Le Mans-spec 911 GTE race cars – and they’ll change forever the way you think about driving a high-performance road car on a racetrack. At the same speeds, in high downforce mode, the new GT3 RS generates 406kg and 860kg respectively. The previous-generation GT3 RS generated 200kg of downforce at 200km/h and 405kg at 285km/h. But Preuninger and Walliser gave Roll the green light. The downside was that the central radiator, the top of which is angled to the front of the car so hot air can escape through vents in front lid, would eliminate all the luggage space underneath. And with more downforce up front, Roll’s team could then create a giant, split-element rear wing while maintaining the overall aero balance of the car. This would free up real estate in front of the front wheels for aerodynamic devices that would significantly increase the amount of downforce at the front axle. What Roll was proposing was instead of the three cooling elements spread across the front of the car as in every other current 911, the GT3 RS should adopt the format of the 911 RSR race car and have a larger single radiator at mounted the centre of the car. “I said to them: We need a central radiator, then we can double the downforce’,” he recalls. Porsche Motorsport aerodynamicist Mathias Roll remembers the meeting with Andreas Peuninger and 911 development chief Frank Walliser where he proposed the defining element of the engineering philosophy behind the GT3 RS. This 911 has been shaped from the inside out by the art and science of modern aerodynamic theory – literally. Every single one of them is there for one reason only – to make the GT3 RS stick to the track like a Le Mans racer. That giant rear wing and all those louvres and vents and flicks and tabs are not there to impress the Fast and Furious fanboys. And, that’s why the GT3 RS looks as jaw-droppingly outrageous as it does. ![]() Without the option of simply dialling up more power to deliver more performance – and Wieler makes it clear that for Porsche, more performance doesn’t mean a faster 0-100km/h acceleration time or a higher top speed, but a quicker lap time around a track – engineers had to delve deeply into Porsche’s bag of racing tricks. That’s because it would have been almost impossible to significantly increase the power of the engine and have it meet the latest Euro 6 emissions regulations, says GT model line manager Tom Wieler. The new GT3 RS is powered by a mildly tweaked version of the naturally-aspirated 4.0-litre flat-six that powers the regular GT3. Even the windscreen, side and rear windows are bespoke, made from lightweight ‘gorilla glass’, the same ultra-tough stuff used for your smartphone screen. Every other panel is unique to the car, and most – including for the first time ever on a road-going 911, the doors – are made from lightweight carbon fibre reinforced plastic. The A-pillars, roof rails and rear quarters are the only panels the GT3 RS shares with any other 911. ![]() That’s because the 911 Turbo’s voluptuous rear haunches gave the room the engineers working for Porsche GT division chief, Andreas Preuninger, needed to package the widest possible rear track and tyres at the rear of the car. The new 911 GT3 RS starts life as the body-in-white of a 992-series 911 Turbo.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |