2019 Porsche 911 Review

[MUSIC PLAYING] CARLOS LAGO: Porsche rang with an opportunity, and what an opportunity it was. Come to Road Atlanta, they said, and there we'd find a Porsche 911 GT2 RS, the most powerful 911 ever. Not only that, but we'd drive it, too. There wouldn't be much time to get all the video coverage we want, but this really isn't something you say no to. So we headed off. Before we get started, make sure to hit the Subscribe button and visit Edmunds.com to find your perfect car.The exterior of the GT2 is a design study in airflow management. That's what you need when you have a car as focused on race track speed as this one, and that's also what you need when you're making upwards of 700 horsepower. The front of this is festooned with all kinds of vents and airflow tricks and stuff, because you need to cool a bunch of different things when you're running at the speed this is capable of, from the brakes to the heat exchangers.You also need to create downforce. That's why you have this massive splitter at the front that gives enough room so that you won't scrape when you're driving fast under compression, but also helps push the front end of the car down. These enormous vents feed the aforementioned heat exchangers, [INAUDIBLE] decks on the hood feed the brakes, and so on and so forth.As we get further back, you can see some chunks of rubber on the Fender from the track time we've already had with the car. The wheels themselves-- these specific ones are made out of magnesium, and that comes as an option that you can get with the optional Weissach package. That's a lightweight package that costs about the price of a loaded Honda CRV-- about $31,000 combined with these wheels.And for that, you get a 40-pound reduction in weight. 25 pounds of that comes from the wheels combined, and that's a big deal when you're working at speed. Now behind them, you have carbon ceramic brakes and adjustable suspension, too. You can see the anti-roll bars and the ride height of this car.As we work further back, we get to, again, another vent to feed this massive turbocharged engine. And also behind this wheel and tire is where a lot of magic happens. This is a rear drive car with an automatic transmission, and it drives through an electronically-controlled rear differential and a brake-actuated torque vectoring system that helps manage power delivery, left and right. That's a lot of power for two wheels to drive, and this thing seems to manage it well because of these electronic controls.Also because of the downforce, this big rear wing on the back helps balance out what's going on in the front. It's adjustable, and that helps you give the stability that you need when you're maintaining crazy cornering speeds. Cornering speeds is what the GT2 prioritizes over top speed and acceleration. But that said, this is still electronically limited to 211 miles-an-hour.For how dramatic the GT2 RS' intentions are, the interior actually isn't too far different than the generation of 911 this is based off of. You have some design things going on here, for sure, like red interior material, red details on the shifter here, and this red steering wheel, as well. But other than that, it's fairly straightforward. It's the stuff that you don't see, or may not realize you don't have, until you turn the car on that you notice.And that's the lack of sound-deadening material. That's the lack of a physical door handle. You have this little fabric that you have to pull like that to open. And those are things that Porsche did in search of removing as much weight from this car as possible. It's also the same reason why you have a sticker on the hood, instead of a badge.We started out doing lead-follow driving. Ahead, in a GT3 RS, was veteran racer Hurley Haywood who'd ensure we'd keep pace. We appreciate the setup, because the thing about this job is that you drive a lot of racetracks, but only once. What I'm going to do now is tell you what it's like to drive. And in a word, it's staggering, as you would expect a 700-horsepower track-oriented 911 to me.But the thing that jumped out immediately to me wasn't the power, because that's smooth and tractable, and we'll talk at length about that. But what really jumped out to me was the steering. When you drive a big, serious track-oriented sportscar, you expect the steering to be weighty and serious. But in the GT2, it's not. We got to accelerate now.[ENGINE ACCELERATES]Oh, listen to that. But as we get up to 130, I'll back off. And we talk about steering at high speed-- this wheel is very light. And that initially seems a little off-putting, because you expect there to be a little bit more resistance when you turn the wheel so you can be very controlled on your inputs, but it actually does that because it's lightness allows you to maintain a very soft grip on the wheel, and you don't have to exert a lot of force to turn it.You can keep your hands rested nicely at the correct position, have your thumbs doing the work, but you don't need to crunch your biceps to show off how manly you are driving your 700-horsepower 911. Porsche's made a big effort in lightening the car, removing mass from the car where possible. That's because this twin-turbo 6 cylinder is heavier than the GT3 RS, and of course it is. It's a twin-turbo vehicle with a bunch of heat exchangers and stuff to account for that.But this has a noticeably different character than the GT3 RS, in that it feels heavier in the rear. And I don't know how much of that is perception because I know it's heavier, or that's just because of the way it drives. The GT3 has more balance with a poor finesse. This is a brute because of that power.[ENGINE REVS]Listen to that. And now let's talk about this engine. 700 horsepower, cooled by a ton of air, has a water cooler, too, that's filled with a 1.3-gallon tank of distilled water that has to be filled up repeatedly. That's what helps keep this thing producing power. It's producing a ton of power, but it comes in relatively tractably. It's easy to modulate with the gas pedal. It's not a sudden, all at once. It delivers power linearly and in a way that's easy to control.It's still a ton of power, so when you get down to some of the slower speed corners and you're downshifting into third gear, like we are now-- it's going to go down to second-- you can give it too much power, give it too much gas, and get a little power on oversteer because obviously, you would. It surprised me at first, because I was driving this like a normal 911. And I was like, oh, a little bit of power oversteer. But that's because it has 700 horsepower. Of course it's going to power oversteer.That said, you still have traction. You just need to control the throttle with some restraint and respect. And that's easy to do. Just keep the wheel straight before you fully wood it. Very simple. High horsepower basics 101, right? But the power really comes into form when you start entering the higher gears. 700 horsepower in second gear isn't going to show you much except for tire smoke.It's when you enter fifth gear that the power becomes truly awesome, because it still maintains that acceleration that you would get in second or third gear, only you're going 140 or 150 miles-an-hour. It's awesome. And when you're going up on a hill later on this track, when you roll onto that gas pedal, you just feel this other-worldly shove that keeps you going up the hill. It's just fantastic.It is a firm car, no doubt-- heavy, stiff spring rates. But it maintains a really drivable balance. We just crested 150 there, and I'm talking to you, the viewer. The power is there. The steering has finesse, but so, too, does the braking. When you dig into the pedal, you feel an immediate sense of confidence and control over your braking zone. You know exactly when and where you're going to stop. And when you're going 155 miles-an-hour, that's an important attribute to have.This is an automatic only. It's Porsche's PDK dual-clutch system, but functionally, it's an automatic. I'm shifting manually right now because I'm not driving at pace. I'm driving so I can talk to you. I've been driving all day with the transmission in drive and letting the sport configuration sort out the gear changes for me, and it's been doing a fantastic job. It works very hard at making you go fast, and it's so smooth and so good at what it does, I can't imagine wanting to do it myself, if my goal is going fast.Now if your goal is to have fun, you can still put it in manual and shift right here, and that feels very good.Now, complaints-- few and far between. I got to say this does not sound as good as the GT3 RS. That 4 liter flat six just howls so beautifully on upshifts.[ENGINE REVS]This has more of an industrial, forceful sound. It's very purposeful, but I wouldn't say it's pretty. Also, these bucket seats do not do wonders on my back. I know that's a body type thing. But I feel like at 5' 10" and about 185, 190 pounds, I feel like I should be more comfortable in these seats than I actually am. What you got to get used to at operating at these speeds is how a vehicle moves around, how it kind of sluice on its tires, the noise, the ferocity of everything, and the speed that you can get going.The way this thing changes directions-- it does it so smoothly that it kind of sucks you in. And then you look down at the speedometer and you go, whoa, I'm going really fast. But it just feels so good in the process. Oh, like these Ss. That's just lovely. [LAUGHS]Oh, that's so good. Oh, man. [LAUGHS] What a blast. That's been a few laps in the GT2 RS. My opinion? It's a wonderful car. Absolutely wonderful. It's staggeringly fast and really, really capable-- far, far more so than my abilities. I feel like the pace that I was driving at was pretty much the limit of where I'm comfortable, and this car could do so much more in the hands of someone more talented. It's really a weapon for speed, absolutely.We could go on and on about how the GT2 RS is special for its extreme speed, exclusivity, and price. But for me, it's special because despite these traits, the GT2 RS remains entirely drivable, and satisfyingly so. Even though it has the traction, the hardware, and the downforce, it's ultimately the driver's responsibility to match the car's capability with control over their own impulses.It leaves it up to you, the driver, to manage that absurd power from corner to corner, and that's what driving satisfaction is all about.