I appreciate the entire spectrum of car motorsports; the state-of-the-art and sophisticated F1 side and the horsepower crazed, high speed 200 mph madness of NASCAR, along with everything else in between. But nothing - absolutely nothing - gets me more excited in motorsports than a race car that's closely tied to a production, road-going version. And that's why I LOVE a lot of factory turn-key race cars like the 911 GT2 RS Clubsport.
The 911 (991.2) GT2 RS Clubsport was built to meet SRO Motorsport Group's new GT2 racing series. SRO is a company specializing in the promotion and organisation of motorsport series. They mainly focus on GT racing, with some of the series they promote include the Blancpain GT Series, GT4 European Series, and others. It recently acquired the GT2 trademark and announced last year the new GT2 series. The class is intended to offer a new opportunity to amateur racing (assuming you have a lot of funds) and feature ‘true supercars’ with horsepower ranging from 640-700 hp. "It’s a merger between GT3 and GT4, with a lot of power.”
The class race cars have be to be based on production versions and it is intended to exclude typical GT1 cars, such as supercars and hypercars. "Eligible GT2 cars will feature a 2-1 weight to power ratio, limited aerodynamic developments, limited modification to road car shape and no modification in engine or gearbox positioning." According to sportscar 365, Porsche is currently the only one to offer a turn-key race car meeting the class regulations, which is the 911 GT2 RS Clubsport.
The new GT2 series is set to have its first race during the Total 24 Hours of Spa weekend on July 26-27. Porsche is guaranteed to be grab the "manufacturer title" since no other manufacturer has a car that's ready for the race. With that said, Stephane Ratel (chair of SRO) has stated that they were targeting six brands for the GT2 series with interest from other manufacturers, but Porsche is the only one to have build a car for the series. It's unclear if it is still possible for other manufacturers to step up and launch a car that's ready to compete between now and then. But even with just Porsche competing, SRO is expecting a full grid of GT2 RS Clubsport racer cars.
And those GT2 RS Clubsport cars are very closely related to the road-going 911 (991.2) GT2 RS cars like I mentioned earlier. Porsche doesn't list any changes for the engine or even the PDK gearbox, so you can expect them all to be unchanged. Even the horsepower figure is unchanged at 700 hp. You can read the full specs from Porsche here, but in essence, Porsche makes it lighter, safer, and more resilient. Porsche even keeps PSM (Porsche Stability Management) including traction control and electronic stability control functions (with switches to turn each off separately).
The interior is stripped and a lot of exterior body panels are replaced with carbon fibre, including the front and rear hoods and the roof. The car also gets a full FIA roll cage, of course, along with a fuel cell with a cut-off switch, six-point harness, fire suppression system, and power kill-switches (interior and exterior). The road-going GT2 RS gets ball-jointed (spherical jointed) suspension mountings everywhere, but Porsche says the Clubsport has "high-performance" joints.
The engine and transmission also get improved cooling and the exhaust piping and emissions systems are modified for increased air flow. Aerodynamics are also improved slightly from the road car as emphasized by the giant rear wing. There are also additional cooling inlets up front with a 'mid cooler'. The brakes are perhaps the biggest change, with two individual circuits (one front and one rear) to easily adjust brake bias front to rear to suit the driver and the track. Interestingly, Porsche replaces the Porsche Carbon Ceramic Brakes (PCCB) with steel units.
Only 200 will be built so it will be very exclusive. Although it will be far from affordable, the car should provide a far more reliable, tested, and capable race car for those who'd rather not do their own wrenching (and can afford to). The GT2 series will allow owners of those cars to race, as well as owners of any future offerings from other brands that meet the regs. If you do buy one of those Porsche's, however, you will also get the support of Porsche Ambassador and race car driver Mark Webber. You can watch him taking a GT2 RS Clubsport for demonstration laps at the Bathurst 12 Hour and discussing the car below.
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