Yahoo Autos Lightning Lap 2018: Porsche 911 GT2 RS Weissach
Lap Time: 2:37.8
Class: LL5 | Base Price: $328,70 | As-Tested Price: $332,336
Power and Weight: 700 hp • 3362 lb • 4.8 lb/hp
Tires: Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R, F: 265/35ZR-20 (99Y) R: 325/30ZR-21 (108Y)
Porsche doesn’t eke out Lightning Lap records. When the 918 Spyder ascended the throne in 2014, it lopped 2.8 seconds off the former champ’s time. Now in strolls the 911 GT2 RS Weissach and almost doubles that interval, cleaving 5.2 seconds from our previous quickest time. Before this year, our best lap around VIR was a 2:43.0 in the Ford GT, just a tenth of a second quicker than the 918. But now we have three cars in the 2:30s. Porsche didn’t merely crush the record, it stayed nearly two seconds ahead of the two other cars that also did.
There’s nothing too special in the key elements of the GT2 RS Weissach, and yet it performs like alien technology. There’s no hybrid system or carbon-fiber structure, just lots of little things that add up. Gorilla Glass, lightweight carpet and wiring, and a titanium muffler save a combined 32 pounds. A pair of adjustable carbon-fiber anti-roll bars micromanage body roll. And Michelin launched its newest go-fast tires on the GT2 RS. They wrap magnesium wheels that, together, save 25 pounds. Water sprayers chill the intake charge during sustained high loads. The GT2 RS has 200 more horsepower than the GT3 but weighs only an extra 100 pounds. Its greatness isn’t the simple sum of its parts on paper, but how each one of those parts works in perfect Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young harmony.
Everything from the ground up-tires, wheels, hubs, unibody, a ball-jointed suspension essentially lifted from Porsche race cars-transmits information to the steering wheel and carbon-fiber seat with the fidelity of a diamond stylus on freshly pressed vinyl. The GT2 RS feels so stable, so natural on-track that you’d think the Motorsports Centre in Flacht, Germany, where the Porsche GT and race cars are birthed, is just pumping out rebodied clones of Jacky Ickx’s 935. Corners arrive and disappear quicker than in any other street car.
Despite the new tires, the Porsche lacks the outright grip of the ZR1, pulling 1.16 g’s in Horse Shoe to the Vette’s 1.21. We suspect this is less a reflection on the Cup 2 R than it is a function of the weight balance of this rear-engined machine, because the RS gets out of corners as if it stole the curbing and the apex police are chasing it.
For something with its spec sheet, the GT2 RS is surprisingly forgiving. A sharp turn of the wheel concurrent with a mashed gas pedal will induce oversteer, but with smooth inputs, you can floor the throttle a beat or two before it feels sensible. Braking from 165.2 mph doesn’t cause so much as a wiggle of instability from the heavy end. Where other cars bounce over curbing, the GT2 RS seemingly glides over concrete serrations. It is hard to believe how little body roll there is. It’s just as comfortable as the GT3, only without any of the 3’s civility. The tail of the car might say “Made in Flacht,” but this is a car straight out of our dreams. We only wish a lap of the Grand Course were 10 miles, so the dream could last a little longer.
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