GT3RS

Ride onboard with Ryan Gates for a lap around Road Atlanta in the 2008 311RS Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup #underthelights.

For the third year in a row, Driving Club RA has hosted track time for their members following the annual 10hr Petit LeMans race at Road Atlanta, complete with all the lighting equipment to allow for night lapping.

Adam and the rest of the crew at Driving Club RA put on an amazing event. This would be our second time attending but first time participating, and my goodness we could not have been happier to be there. A huge thank you to member Leh Keen for the invite.

With us for this trip was our 2008 997.1 GT3 Cup. Prior to heading on track, we made a pit stop with our partners at Goldcrest Motorsports. The car was due for a fluid flush and a once over after our test at BIR the weekend prior.

The stock rubber bushings in the suspension were found to be past their prime, which meant we had an opportunity to replace them with factory Porsche Motorsport solid mounts throughout. A significant upgrade that improves driver+car connection thus reducing lap times.

Fresh from service at Goldcrest, we arrived at Road Atlanta and were greeted by glorious Georgia fall weather, a welcome reprieve from the snow that was falling up north in MN when we left.

A pair of 997.1 GT3 cars – it doesn’t get much prettier than that for us. Leh Keen brought out his modified 2008 997.1 GT3RS for the event. The car is sick.

We were very much looking forward to seeing the Frog.0 light up the evening sessions.

It’d been years since we last run dry laps around Road Atlanta. In fact it was 2008, we were in town with the new Evo X running with NASA in the TT-A class. Good times!

With newfound sharpness to the car, it was only a few laps before we were up to speed. The car felt amazing, alive, and very quick. Lap times during the first day time sessions averaged in the mid-1:26s with traffic.

We’ll have to come back another time to make a run at a fast lap.

Before we knew it the sun had begun to set. The “modern classic” beauty of the 997.1 was on full display during golden hour. It seems 997.1s are hardly aging, still looking contemporary nearly 12 years on.

The purity of the 997.1 GT3 Cup is something special.

Leh’s 997.1 GT3RS takes it a step further. The widebody shell of the GT3RS becomes especially evident during golden hour. Look at how those GT2RS side skirts are soaking up every last bit of sun light.

We don’t have much in the form of photos from our time #underthelights, however this image does a nice job of conveying the serene nature of driving on track at night.

The headlights essentially force the driver to focus solely on what’s happening immediately in front of the car and nowhere else. With nothing more than a narrow path visible to the driver, it makes for an intense yet peaceful driving session.

We’ll have more footage from our time at Road Atlanta up on YouTube here soon. For now, turn down the lights and ride along for a lap around Road Atlanta #underthelights.

In cooperation with Brainerd International Raceway, we hosted a private test for our GT2RS Clubsport & 991.2 GT3 Cup. In addition, we invited a small group of our road car clients to join us for some much-needed high speed therapy.

Participants were limited to a total of 10 as part of our agreement with the track and the local county attorney. Strict social-distance guidelines were adhered to and we are happy to report, nearly four weeks since the event, each one of us who attended remain free of COVID-19 symptoms.

Peter Lapinski was on hand to capture the scenes of our first test for 2020. We thank him for being there as we rolled out our GT2RS Clubsport for the first time, a huge milestone for our team. Please enjoy the following selection images from Peter and accompanying notes from the team.

The line up included: GT2RS Clubsport, 991.2 GT3 Cup, GT2RS, 991.2 GT3RS (x2) 991.2 GT3, 997.1 GT3, and a 996.2 GT3 (did not run).

The sun was hitting the GT2RS Gold BBS wheels just right.

The 311RS Porsche 911 GT2RS Clubsport followed by the 311RS Porsche 911 GT3 Cup on track together for the first time.

Our partners at Goldcrest Motorsports sent Blake White up for the test. He helped us get up to speed and ensured the test went smoothly. Thank you Blake & Goldcrest!

The GT2RS Clubsport absolutely ate up the track. Even during shakedown, the car was running faster laps than we had ever ran around BIR. A beast, as they say.

With nothing more than fuel & distilled water (for the intercooler sprayer system), the GT2RS Clubsport ran like clockwork. Here we see Ryan giving the underside of the car an ocular pat down after a session in the car.

It was a treat running the GT2RS road car and the GT2RS Clubsport together on track. While the road car is quite a bit faster in a straight line (it is tuned by M-Engineering making over 700whp), the Clubsport handily walked away from it over the course of a lap.

Two different vantage points through T9 – a turn that requires much respect from the driver.

Elsewhere on track, Jeff was up to speed out of the box in his 991.2 GT3 Cup. He’s tested the car at Sebring & COTA already this season, so on familiar territory at BIR he was very quick.

We look forward to working with this driver and car as the season progresses. The 991.2 GT3 Cup provides us an opportunity to understand and develop with Porsche’s latest Cup car platform. This experience will pay dividends for years to come.

Dan was pushing his 311RS-prepared 991.2 GT3RS to new limits during the test. He is picking up speed, and quickly. We are looking forward to seeing his development this season.

Tom was on hand in his gorgeous 311RS-prepared 997.1 GT3 consistent as usual. It’s always a pleasure seeing this car run.

A new driver for 311RS, John, was testing out his new 311RS-prepared 991.2 GT3RS for the first time. Fresh from an initial chassis setup, he was quick to improve, lopping multiple seconds from his lap times each session.

He’s due back into 311RS HQ for further upgrades along with our track aero & chassis setup. We are looking forward to seeing this & driver car develop.

Brandon was up to speed right away in his 311RS-prepared 991.2 GT3. We’ve been working with him for a season now, his progression in both speed and feedback have been great to see.

He’s now equipped with our safety package (roll bar, harnesses, and HANS device) and faster than ever while also being safer than ever.

Bruce was pounding laps in his GT2RS road car in between sessions in his GT2RS Clubsport. Hearing his feedback in back to back sessions was awesome, suddenly that GT2RS road car felt very much like a road car in comparison.

That’s it for now. Lots learned, with even more yet to learn. Until next time, Fear The Cheese!

Photos courtesy of Peter Lapinski

We dyno two of Porsche’s latest 911s in order to establish a baseline for each project. Read on to see how these two beasts fared on our local Mustang dyno.

The first step in any project we work with here at 311RS is to record baseline numbers – i.e. weight, lap times, power, etc.

With RS Motors 30 miles away, we have local access to a Mustang Dyno. We prefer a Mustang dyno for it’s load-based calculations – simulating the rolling resistance a car will see in the real world.

Numbers may not be as high as an intertia-based Dynojet, however the numbers provided from a Mustang dyno are reliable and consistent across the industry.

First up, the 2018 GT2RS is loaded onto the rollers for it’s baseline runs. The car is sufficiently broken in with 1,130miles on the clock. Porsche quotes the car at 700hp at the crank from the factory.

We ran the GT2RS for three pulls on the Mustang dyno. Seeing a car run under load on a dyno never gets old!

The GT2RS produced a healthy 630whp and 547tq on it’s final run. These numbers confirm this unit is making at least the 700hp quoted from Porsche.

Next up we have a 2019 GT3RS with 500 miles on the clock. No doubt still a bit tight, however there is no time like the present for a baseline dyno given our plans for the car this winter.

The 4.0L N/A engine in the 991.2 GT3RS is rated at 520hp at the crank from the factory.

Again, this car appears to be quite healthy – producing 456whp & 325tq.

While the GT3RS was making it’s runs, Ryan worked quickly to swap the exhaust on the GT2RS – removing the OEM catted & valved system and replacing it with our prototype 993 GT2 Evo-inspired straight pipes made locally here in MN by the guys at Patience Metal Fab.

The goal with these pipes is two fold – remove weight and reduce restriction.

Onto the dyno the car went. At this point, the car is running the factory tune and is not optimized for the additional flow of our straight pipes. Even so, it is important we see how the car responds with an exhaust swap alone.

Porsche runs a heavily torque-based control strategy with it’s ECU. Just because there is a reduced back pressure doesn’t mean the car will produce more power than the target torque value. The ECU will close the throttle, limit wastegate duty cycle, etc. to keep that targeted number exactly the same.

A look at the back -to-back dyno plots between stock exhaust & straight pipes confirms the above. The ECU clearly does not like the additional flow and as the revs increase it consistently trims power off the top end.

All of this leads to one thing – tuning. We cannot wait to unlock the potential of these cars by dyno tuning them. Mitch from COBB will be paying us a visit come mid-January to tune each of these cars with COBB AccessPorts.

By the time Mitch arrives in MN, the GT3RS will have a Dundon Motorsports longtube header system on it. Those alone are said to make good power without a tune, so we’ll confirm that and move forward with tuning after a few baseline runs.

As for the GT2RS, we’ll have the car tuned for the OEM exhaust as well as the straight pipes. In the event we visit a track with noise restrictions, it’s important we can still run the OEM system to good effect.

Our next area of focus will be on the aero department. The parachute caused by removing the rear muffler is to be addressed, as is additional cooling to ensure we aren’t burning up the back of the car with these 5″ straight pipes.

Until then, please enjoy this video of the GT2RS putting launch control to the test on slippery December roads here in MN. Turn the volume up!!

GT2RS owners interested in the development of our GT2RS program, please contact us and we’ll keep you up to date with each step of the process.

Photos courtesy of Peter Lapinski.