Porsche 911 GT3 RS is even more track-focused thanks to £99,999 Manthey Kit
The Porsche 911 GT3 is already pretty handy around a race track, and the GT3 RS model is even more so. Yet, Manthey Racing has developed a kit to “further enhance the on-track performance” of the GT3 RS.
The company has decades of experience taking Porsches – specifically 911 GT cars – and turning them into track monsters. And this latest example promises to be its quickest iteration of the GT3 RS to date. Porsche owns a majority stake in Manthey Racing, so this new kit comes with the manufacturer’s full approval, having been produced jointly in Germany by Porsche’s development centre in Weissach and Manthey engineers in Meuspath.
At £99,999, the Manthey Kit isn’t cheap - especially when you add in the initial £192,600 price tag of the 911 GT3 RS. However, the upgrades are rather extensive and should see the car climb from its current fourth spot in the Nurburgring lap time table. With winter well and truly here, the firm might have to wait a while for a clear run, though.
So what do Manthey’s customers get for their very nearly six-figure sum? Well, for a start, more than a tonne of downforce (at 177mph), thanks to a new spoiler lip profile with carbon-fibre elements and redesigned wheelarch ‘Gurney’ flaps with dive planes. Plus the rear window has been deemed superfluous and replaced by a 25 per cent lighter carbon-fibre panel, while the rear fin is derived from the 963 race car that won the 2024 World Sportscar Championship. There are also six additional roof fins, with all the rear aero designed to divert warm air away from the radiator.
That gigantic rear wing also features a Formula One-style DRS (drag reduction system), which works in conjunction with a widened rear diffuser. To the sides of the Porsche, we can see something now synonymous with Manthey’s cars - an ‘aerodisc’ wheel cover to further reduce air resistance.
It’s not just the exterior aerodynamics that Manthey Racing has worked on. There’s also ‘semi-active’ coilover suspension with revised spring rates, designed to work with the extra downforce; the front springs are 30 per cent stiffer, and the rears 15 per cent stiffer. Plus the kit includes new wheel-acceleration sensors for each wheel to ensure improved damper tuning, and new shock absorbers with two separate valves for the compression and rebound stages of movement.
‘Racing’ brake pads have been fitted, too, and these are optimised for track days. They’re combined with steel-sheathed brake lines to provide “even more direct pedal feel and a faster response time”. Manthey Racing says the pads will offer consistent performance over a wide temperature range.
If the big aero changes don’t do it for you, you can also add some more visual tweaks, including illuminated carbon-fibre sill guards with Manthey lettering, more Manthey Racing branding on the LED puddle lights, a towing eye, and decals on the doors and wheels.
The 911’s powertrain hasn’t been fiddled with, though. A naturally aspirated, 4.0-litre flat-six puts out 518bhp and 465Nm of torque in the GT3 RS, with power going to the rear wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. The standard car tops out at 184mph, but we suspect the additional downforce of the Manthey Kit will limit this car to a ‘mere’ 177mph.
