Porsche's Racer for the Road : Biggest Engine Yet for 911 Sports Car ~ Shear

Shear English - Porsche's current 911 is going out with a bang - now packing its biggest ever engine for a new GT3 road-racer variant. The new GT3 RS 4.0, as its name suggests, is fitted with a unique 4.0-litre version of the company's iconic flat-six engine, up from the usual 3.8 litres. Less than 10 examples of the limited edition (only 600 will be made) will make it to Australia later this year. But Porsche has already "serious expressions of interest" for customers willing to fork up the $409,100 (plus costs) asking price.

That's whopping $68,000 premium over the stripped-out, track-focused GT3 RS and a staggering $132,900 on top of the already-rapid GT3. And for that price you get a plastic rear window. That's because any area that could save weight has been trimmed. The bonnet and front fenders are made of racing-style carbon fibre, there are special feather-weight seats, and even the carpet is "weight-optimised."

That helps the RS 4.0 tip the scales at 1360kg, making it 10kg lighter than the already anorexic RS 3.8. But you do get more of the most important things to help you go faster: power and downforce. All that extra money buys you another 37kW of power and an extra 30Nm of torque on top of the GT3 RS. That lets the RS 4.0 launch from 0-100km/h in 3.9 seconds and sprint from standstill to 200km/h in only 12 seconds.

The usual wide, low stance of the GT3 carries over, as does the huge racecar-style rear wing. At the front Porsche has used the aerodynamic, downforce-creating vanes, or "flics", to improve cornering performance even more. It is the first time the flics have been used on a production Porsche and come directly from the company's ultra-successful motoring racing 911 GT3 RSR.

As a result of this extra grunt and downforce is the GT3 RS 4.0 cap lap the famous Nurburgring Nordschleife in 7mins27secs, faster than Porsche's V10-powered Carrera GT supercar. The GT3 RS 4.0 will be painted white to match the company's racing colours. The addition of the GT3 RS 4.0 brings the total number of 911 variants to 23.