My driving-school automotive was, effectively, I don’t bear in mind. I do know it was some Nineteen Nineties GM full-size sedan, possibly a Buick Park Avenue. The purpose is that it was forgettable. It was not a Porsche 911 GT3 RS with a Manthey Racing efficiency equipment.
Porsche introduced on Tuesday that it now permits college students to drive a 911 GT3 RS Manthey in its Observe Expertise driver-education program at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. College students get to drive the automotive within the three extra superior courses: The three-day Masters RS, the four-day Masters RSR, and the invite-only Masters TR. The RS and RSR applications are designed to get college students an SCCA Full Competitors license.
Photograph by: Porsche
The GT3 RS is already essentially the most hardcore factor Porsche makes, with a loopy aero package deal that helps it make about as a lot downforce as a 911 race automotive does at Le Mans. Manthey Racing is a Nürburgring-based Porsche subsidiary that, amongst different issues, develops dealing with kits for Porsche GT fashions.
For the GT3 RS, the Manthey equipment features a bigger splitter, dive planes, a bigger rear diffuser, and a much bigger rear wing. Oh, and a carbon-fiber panel with a shark fin that replaces the rear window. Porsche claims 2,200 kilos of downforce at 177 MPH—about 20 p.c greater than a regular GT3 RS. The automotive additionally will get stiffer springs, semi-active coilovers, and stainless-steel brake traces.
It is a great way for Porsche to get potential clients into its hardest-core 911 but and to indicate off its immense capabilities. However it’s additionally an excellent automotive for a racing faculty. With this a lot downforce and the identical engine as a 911 GT3 Cup automotive, a GT3 RS Manthey is about as shut as a race-car driving expertise you possibly can have in a highway automotive. If somebody’s going to Porsche’s Observe Expertise to discover ways to drive actual race vehicles, they might do rather a lot worse than driving in one in every of these.
Just like the automotive itself, this system isn’t low-cost. The Masters RS faculty prices $9,700, which is each some huge cash and about par for this kind of racing faculty. (Porsche doesn’t record pricing for Masters RSR or TR on its Observe Expertise web site.) The vehicles can be found for college students now and will likely be at Barber till Spring 2026.
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