The 991 is different. Partly because of the PDK twin-clutch ’box, which fundamentally changes the car’s focus and your connection to it, and partly because of its focus on pure speed instead of purity. Actually that’s being unfair—it’s still a very pure car, it’s just the balance tipped toward speed. The rough edges were polished and sharpened. Aero properly got in on the act—just look at the ducts over the front wheels, the size of that rear wing. And then there’s the green car. Looks pretty much like the orange, really, but when you do what you have to do with a GT3 RS, get up close and really study it, things start to shift...
Where to start? The engine. Only 20hp more potent, but that’s been gained not by a tweaked ECU, but with a different oil sump, bigger crankshaft, different heads, revised valvetrain. “It’s basically a gen two of the 4.0-liter,” reckons Preuninger. And the suspension set-up has been completely rethought: “The spring rates have gone up, more than double at the front, and 50% at the back, and the sway bars [anti-roll bars] come down to compensate. We’ve turned the philosophy around, so it’s now much more like a Cup car, a racecar. If this,” Preuninger says, pointing at the 991.1, “is already a razor-sharp, precision instrument, then the new one is the scalpel.”
You notice immediately. Within 100 meters, he’d told me, and he wasn’t wrong. The 991.2 rides with ridiculous determination. There’s barely a trace of movement in the front suspension, noticeably less than before, but it’s the precision of it, the lack of distraction, the utter purity of input being matched by action. I thought the previous car had banished the idiosyncracy of older GT3 RS’s, but after the new one, the 991.1’s nose felt a bit bobbly. Too much jiggle. Aero work has increased downforce by a scarcely believable 40% (“We’re closing in on 500kg on that thing”), which has brought the center of gravity and pressure forward so much that it almost seems mid-engined. No need to brake on the way into corners now. With this much grip, all you need do is steer.