Up next in 10
Porsche's 992-generation GT3 RS is one of the best road and track cars money can buy, but can it be bettered? Manthey Racing thinks so. The Porsche-owned racing outfit has developed a £100k factory-approved upgrade kit for the RS, designed to unlock even more potential on track through new aero parts, suspension and brake upgrades. The result is one of the most extreme road-going 911s ever, and perhaps the closest thing to driving a Cup car with number plates.
We headed to Anglesey to put the Manthey RS to the test against the already brilliant standard car, and against the stopwatch, to potentially break our production car lap record.
00:00 Intro
01:23 Driving the standard GT3 RS
03:50 Manthey GT3 RS overview
07:41 Driving the Manthey GT3 RS
10:42 Lap times
16:11 Conclusion
Subscribe for evo’s latest performance car reviews, head-to-heads and track tests: https://bit.ly/3Ommfyv
Follow us:
https://twitter.com/evomagazine
https://www.facebook.com/evomagazine
https://www.instagram.com/officialevomagazine/
https://www.tiktok.com/@evomagazine?
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Welcome to Anglesey and welcome to a very
0:29
special episode of Evo Leaderboards. We've got the 992 GT3 RS, the best road and track car money can
0:35
buy, and this, the more extreme Manti racing version. Now, this has got 100 grand's worth of
0:42
extra aero, different suspension, all designed to make it even more capable on a track. But how much
0:48
quicker is it, and is it actually any good to drive on a circuit? That's what we're here to find out
0:52
If anyone can make the RS even more capable, it's Manti. They've raced 911s for decades and factory Porsche GT cars since 2013, winning at Le Mans and the Nürburgring over and over again in the process
1:07
There's nobody better at making 911s go quicker, and this £100,000 Porsche-approved upgrade kit for the RS is designed to push the base car's aero and chassis to new extremes, if that's even possible
1:21
We'll have Dickie Meadon setting lap times in both cars later, but first let's see what Manti is starting with
1:30
Right, the 992 GT3 RS. What is there to say about this car that hasn't already been said
1:43
It's our 2023 car of the year, 2024 track car of the year as well. It's the benchmark
1:50
And for good reason, it feels absolutely sensational on this circuit. Everything is just so well honed for a lap time
2:04
But it's also a joy to just drive. I mean, it feels so hooked up. It gives you so much confidence
2:11
It doesn't feel like it can get much better on circuit. Well, that's what the Manti's designed to do, isn't it
2:18
supposedly offer more than this. I just want to keep driving and driving
2:30
Wow. There's so much going on here. We've got adjustable settings for the dampers, bump and rebound
2:38
front and rear. We've got adjustable settings for the diff on entry
2:43
and when you're powering out. But essentially what you need to know is this car feels absolutely intuitive, completely
2:55
keyed in and those modes just let you tailor it, just fine tune it
3:04
But it can also play around. It just feels like you're driving a cup car
3:18
Rebs all the way to nine. It doesn't actually feel crazy quick in a straight line, to be honest
3:27
But I think that gives it an even greater sense of corner speed because you just arrive
3:32
at corners, brush the brakes and carry all your speed in. You're not stopping and starting like you do in a normal road car
3:40
How on earth is the Manti going to take this any further
3:44
I don't know, but that's what we're here to find out. Okay, Tiki, I've just got out of this
3:56
and I can't figure out how a road car can be any more capable on a circuit
4:01
but that's exactly what this is meant to be. Yeah. The weird thing about this, the Manti car
4:05
is everything's the same fundamentally, but everything's different. So they followed the same route to achieving
4:12
what the factory did with this car. So they unlocked a load of downforce at the front
4:15
which was always a limiting factor with 911. Yeah. It's through the bonnet, isn't it
4:19
You've got the... Yeah, by flowing the air through where the luggage space was
4:23
and then that enabled them to put that ginormous wing on. Yeah. Well they just found more here with the dive planes and a bigger deeper splitter And they just run the air over the car much more efficiently The whole back window gone now so you can see anything really out
4:38
of the back apart from the door mirrors. This giant fin is for high speed stability through
4:44
high speed corners. Massive wing with two elements now which still work with the same DRS
4:53
You look at that and you think there's no way a road car could have a bigger wing and then
4:56
It's crazy isn't it? It's absolutely enormous and the wildest thing is that it's completely
5:04
drag neutral because they've had to keep within all the homologation paperwork basically for this
5:09
car so there's more under the body as well. There's an extra panel at the front that seals from the
5:15
back of the splitter to where the main floor on this car starts. It diffuses deeper at the back
5:22
and longer. So what are we talking numbers wise then? Downforce? It's about 20% more downforce. What else? Manti normally would swap PASM for a fixed rate or fixed
5:37
KW passive dampers. On this one they've completely rethought how they do things, they put their own
5:44
controller on the PSM and it keeps all the cool switches and adjustability that this car has
5:51
but there's much more distinct mode so comfort in this is the softest it gets
5:56
But still probably not comfort. It's all relative. Relative, yeah. And then you go right through to track and then you've got much more adjustability
6:06
They've got more sensors on the car so it's smarter and more responsive so each wheel it will
6:13
adjust to whatever's going on in real time. It's different brake pads, different brake lines
6:18
It's real fine detail stuff. So it's like a track day junkie has been given complete free reign over this
6:24
It's like Gran Turismo if you've got all the credits. Yeah, yeah, performance points maxed out
6:28
But it's not an engine exercise or gearbox. No, they've not touched anything mechanically again because of the homologation stuff
6:34
All the DRS software is the same, so it has the same effect
6:38
It won't go, this won't go any faster on a straight, but it won't go any slower either
6:43
So it's purely gains in terms of what they can wring out of the tyres
6:47
and what the aero gives you through the corners. It's funny though, when driving this
6:53
I mean, I feel like the balance of power and grip is way in favour of grip
6:58
So this has got the same power, but even more aero, even more..
7:02
It's another leap of faith. I think it's all going to be proportionate
7:08
but it's hard, isn't it? I think we're so used to Manta being measured
7:12
at Nürburgring, which is a 12-mile track, and what's the coastal circuit here
7:17
One mile and a half. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. A hundred grand's worth of mods
7:21
Plus fitting, I think. Plus fitting to an already brilliant car. This one track car of the year last year, I think it was
7:27
Yeah, 23. 23. And car of the year in 2020. Yeah, yeah, yeah
7:31
So one of the few cars that's done the double. Yeah, that's it
7:35
Yeah, it's a very tough act to follow. But if anyone can do it, I think Manta can. Yeah
7:39
Should we find out? Let's see. So we've compared the differences with the standard RS and the Manti kit RS, but how
7:52
does the Manti kit feel on track? Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, not as dramatic as it looks
8:04
And I think that's inevitable because what we can't forget is that while the Manti kit
8:08
looks, it's still based on what is fundamentally the same mechanical package
8:19
So the gains and the improvements are always going to be fine, marginal improvements here
8:26
and there. That was the painstaking bit of the whole development process for this car
8:32
finding meaningful gains in a car that's already had the pips squeezed to get all the pace
8:39
and performance and aerodynamic performance from it. We've driven this car on the road and on the road it's much more immediately apparent that
8:48
the car is stiffer than the factory car but on the track where you've got a bit more load
8:55
in it we in track mode at the moment and we in the suggested starting point settings which is zero bump and rebound front and rear we told that the setting that they recommend for N so it a good place to start anywhere And
9:13
I think with speed the car settles into itself more so the obvious differences between it
9:20
and the regular RS are harder to detect. But Mantis philosophy is to give as much confidence
9:29
to the driver as it possibly can. So front end grip is improved but the balance of the
9:36
car might be shifted forward slightly between 1 and 2% aero balance towards the front. But
9:45
they've made sure that whilst the front has brilliant response the rear will always support
9:50
that direction change. Clearly somewhere like Anglesey, about one and a half miles we're
9:57
not going to have the chance to experience what this car was really born to do which
10:02
is attack the Nürburgring all 12 and a bit miles of it. But I think there will be sections
10:08
of this circuit which show where you need that confidence principally. This corner turn
10:14
one which is much faster than it looks and just requires confidence to commit. But yeah
10:21
I think it will be really interesting subjectively. I think the differences will be easier to
10:29
detect than perhaps they will objectively against the clock. But at the end of the day
10:35
that's what we're here to do. So let's put some new boots on them and see what they do
10:43
Both cars will be timed on Michelin Cup 2Rs, and the Manti came with tyre blankets, which
10:49
the standard RS didn't have, but we did get plenty of time in both cars to prep for the
10:54
fast laps and get the tyres in the correct window. Before timing them, we'd brim the tanks and put them on the scales, and the Manti was
11:01
a tiny bit heavier, but still really close to Porsche's official weight, which includes
11:06
a 90% full tank. RS is up first, here's the lap
12:38
Right, how did you get on? Bloody hell. 111.18 which feels pretty bloody quick actually but it's just having the faith in the aero
12:55
and having the presence of mind to press the DRS buttons everywhere because you override
13:00
the car's safety level built in so if it feels lateral load and some steering lock
13:08
it won't do it automatically, but you can override it at a certain point
13:11
Are you checking in the mirror to see if it's opening or closing? I can't read whether it's doing it on the dash, but you can just see the wing drop down
13:19
in the mirror. So yeah, it's such a cool thing to drive. And just have a little play around
13:25
Are you tweaking that as you go around the lap, or have you found a setting that you
13:29
like? I'm not touching it in the lap. We had a few runners in the morning didn we So we kind of arrived at a good what feels like You could spend could spend all day driving you could yeah couldn you but that part of the fun of it though isn it that you have this ceiling that you can just tweak it and ever wait it is there anywhere where it
13:44
feels like it could give you a bit more is it coming out i don't know i mean that's the thing
13:49
isn't it we've got to drive from that to a multi-kip car and try and go quicker it doesn't feel like
13:54
you could go any quicker in isolation it's like where do you go from here isn't it but i guess
13:58
that'll take it to a new level. I'm imagining it would just be a step everywhere, so it'll just, and maybe feel easier to drive
14:05
in the bits where this is a little bit tricky, but it's what we've come to find out
14:10
Cool, right, let's get the next one ready. A 111.1 for the normal RS is really impressive
15:43
It matches the McLaren 765LT, but the Manti car is out of this world
15:49
It's the second fastest road car we've ever timed at Anglesey, going a fraction quicker than the 1,000-horsepower Ferrari SF90
15:57
with the Assetto Fiorano pack and the same cup to our tyres
16:01
The BAC Mono 2.5 is the only road-legal car that's faster and that has one seat and no roof
16:08
Incredible. I'm pleased and, yeah, just excited, actually, at what we found and the relative merits of the cars
16:21
because they're really, in most terms, like most comparative terms, they're really close, aren't they
16:26
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you get in that and you just think, how can you go any quicker
16:31
And it's one of those where I think when you try and get a lap time out of it
16:35
you might feel those little margins where you're like, oh, I could go a bit quicker there, could commit harder
16:39
And then this brings everything up to the level where it feels like you're the limit, I think
16:44
It's about your commitment to the car. I think, I mean, we should say both cars were on Cup 2 R's
16:48
Yes, yeah, yeah. So the most aggressive Michelin car. Which was sketchy in the wet in the morning
16:54
Yeah, we typically chucked it down this morning. So we did some running, didn't we
16:58
I think the key run here is turn one, which is a fast left-hander into a big brake hairpin
17:05
And then you've got a deep breath and then there's a really fast kink onto the back straight, isn't there
17:09
All of those things. This car does so well. You can just break that a little bit later
17:15
or just roll a bit more speed in and get on the power sooner. exit quicker you're playing with the drs in both as well and 100 grand's worth i mean it is a lot
17:24
i mean you could buy some pretty special cars for that much but i think to improve that you probably
17:30
need to spend 100 grand to get that extra bit because that's already at such i think if you're
17:33
in that league and you use it in the way it's intended yeah yeah then yeah huge amount of money
17:40
but it's a meaningful gain and i think you'd enjoy the car more everywhere you drove it i think so
17:45
especially at the Nurburgring, but come here and it changes the track slightly
17:51
your perception of all the corners changes. So, no, magical cars
#Motor Vehicles (By Type)
#Custom & Performance Vehicles
#Sports Cars
#Motor Vehicles (By Brand)