2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS PVOTY Review: Master of the Road Course

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If you’ve followed our previous coverage of the 2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, you’ll forgive us for asking: What haven’t we reported by now in terms of how spectacularly this car performs? What haven’t we said that leaves any doubt about the track-focused abilities of the most dynamically capable, factory-built, road-legal, series-production 911 of all time? We raved about it in our first drive story and in our second drive story. We pitted it head to head against a 911 Cup race car at Road America. We ran it through our official MotorTrend testing regimen.

It warped our minds every time.

One upside of our Of The Year programs is that they allow more MT drivers to get behind the wheel of cars that don’t regularly roll through our test fleet. Our staffers work hand in hand daily and share opinions and tales of the cars they drive, yet sometimes we must take each other’s word for it in terms of how good or not so good a vehicle is. And prior to hitting the track during this year’s Performance Vehicle of the Year throwdown, it was apparent to the handful of us who had previously driven the GT3 RS that others who hadn’t were still perhaps a bit skeptical we weren’t drowning them in hypebeast hyperbole. But any lingering cynicism from a group of evaluators with more than enough industry experience to justify that cynicism evaporated by the time our track running concluded; the notes we kept on the Porsche included fresh statements like:

“Probably the best performance road car ever made.”

“I have never experienced grip and chassis tuning like this before.”

“This car is a cheat code. It’s just not fair. It’s on another planet.”

“OMG WTF. Its grip felt like 10 pounds of Gorilla glue was permanently squirted on the tires. Wow.”

“It’s one of the only cars in this year’s field that I exited from after my lapping session sweaty with my heart rate jacked.”

Those of us who already knew just laughed. “Race car for the street” is a cheap, easy, overused description that’s almost never accurate when it comes to even the most extreme road cars, but the GT3 RS justifies the label more than anything so far in our modern era (at least apart from million-plus-dollar ultra hypercars). Its hypodermic-pointy steering seems to change direction the moment you even think of doing so, and the brakes—oh, the brakes. Think you’ve gone far too deep on the binders, past the point of no return? Unless you’re truly, completely, clinically not right in the head, you haven’t.

So why isn’t the 2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS our PVOTY winner? It easily could have been. But its handling is so outer limits, you need a lot of experience—talent, even—to get the absolute best out of the car. We don’t mean it’s scary or evil to drive if you aren’t a pro, because it isn’t. It puts a permagrin on the face of practically anyone who wheels it around a track at whatever speed they choose, by the simple fact they can feel how capable it is and see their confidence grow exponentially as a result. Still, if you’re into chasing its true max, most drivers will need to raise their game substantially and readjust their perceptions of what’s possible on the brakes, on corner entry, in how much midcorner speed you can carry, and how soon you can get on the throttle at the exit.

If you’re not a hugely experienced and capable driver, if not at least a club-level racer, some of our judges questioned if the RS is worth the extra cost and practical trade-offs compared to the already immensely track-capable, intoxicatingly fun standard 911 GT3 that won our PVOTY contest in 2022. Not for nothing, the regular GT3 offers a notably more compliant ride and practicality on the street—our panel was split on the RS’ suitability for regular road use, with this author finding it livable if extremely aggressive, countered by features editor Scott Evans responding: “You’re out of your mind. You cannot commute in this car. The ride is just acceptable on the freeway, but in traffic and on city streets, it’s miserable.”

His view isn’t a unanimous one around these parts, but drivers who side with him resultingly note this characteristic makes the RS a rather limited-use-case vehicle, a singular-purpose track tool. Likewise, the typical 911 frunk storage is eliminated due to an upgraded cooling system and aero ductwork taking up the space usually reserved for cargo. You can still jam a somewhat surprising amount of stuff behind the two seats, but only the most granite of the hardcore will look at the GT3 RS in their garage and say, “Let’s take a long road trip.”

You can, no matter who you are, certainly drive it to your local track day, send everyone else home in tears, and drive home afterward, content in the knowledge you just felt performance on a level usually reserved for racing drivers and uberwealthy uberhypercar owners. Not that the 2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS is remotely cheap, if you can even get one, especially right now on the secondhand market, but it remains a bargain in the context of the full breadth of its powers.