► Former F1 winner spotted in new GT3 RS
► Filming for upcoming promo video
► UK prices, specs for 2015 911 GT3 RS
Here’s a spyshot with a difference. That’s the new Porsche 991 GT3 RS production car racking up some laps on the Nurburgring Nordschleife yesterday evening, with none other than ex-F1 star Mark Webber at the wheel.
He wasn’t attempting a lap record (as the Ringside rumour mill had initially suggested) but was driving the new RS at a rather more sedate pace for a promo video, as Porsche prepares a marketing campaign for this most hardcore of 911s.
Nine-time Grand Prix winner Webber is currently part of Porsche’s factory Le Mans squad. And when you’ve got a popular, very marketable ex-F1 star on the books, a hotly anticipated new model to launch and handy access to the Nurburgring, it’s a logical step to bring the three together.
The Australian driver is known to be something of a 911 fan, with a previous-generation 4.0-litre 997 GT3 RS in his garage. So he’s probably keener than most to see how its successor stacks up…
2015 Porsche 911 GT3 RS: the specs
These shots provide a good view of the 2015 RS’s ultra-wide bodywork, peppered with vents to keep those enormous brakes and 4.0-litre flat-six cool, and in the case of the slashes over the front wheelarches, cut aerodynamic lift as well.
Rumoured to be one of the last 911s to do without turbocharging, it develops 493bhp and 354lb ft, and puts that power through the rear wheels, clad in the widest tyres of any current 911 road car. As with the non-RS GT3, there’s no manual gearbox option, with a development of Porsche’s seven-speed dual-clutch PDK transmission swapping speeds quicker than even an F1 pilot like Webber could manage.
The 991 GT3 RS is clearly at home on the Nordschleife – Porsche says it can lap the ’Ring in seven minutes and 20 seconds – that’s a full nine seconds swifter than the V10-engined Carrera GT supercar. No mean feat.
Porsche announced orders were open for the 991 GT3 RS in March 2015, with a starting price of £131,296 in the UK, for which a limited number of right-hand-drive cars will be built.