You never know what you’ll find at the Porsche store. Like this car, for example, which a friend of ours happened to see as it was waiting to be picked up by its new owner. Seems kind of interesting, another Porsche 911 for a happy owner. Then you knock on the front fender and hear the distinctive resonance of carbon-fiber.
It turns out that this Porsche 911’s owner is Jeff Zwart, the well-known photographer and maker of commercial films, often for Porsche. This would also be the Jeff Zwart who is practically the king of the mountain at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, a class winner many times since 1989, and all in street-legal cars.
This is a street-legal car, too, even though it’s not intended for Pikes Peak. But it still turns out to be a pretty special 911, as in one that laps the Nurburgring Nordschleife in 7 min 27 sec.
So when we heard by chance through a friend that Zwart’s new street car happened to be at Circle Porsche in Long Beach, we drove over there to take a look. It turns out that what we have here is the Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0. It’s the last of the 997-series hot rods. Just 600 have been built and apparently they sold out in 14 days.
The RS 4.0’s key feature is a 4.0-liter street-legal version of the racing-type RSR engine and it delivers 500 hp at 8,250 rpm and 339 lb-ft of torque at 5,750 rpm. The chassis setup is mid-way between the GT3 RS 3.8 and GT2 RS, and it includes rod-ends in the rear suspension. If you look closely, you’ll also notice the aero whiskers forward of the front wheels and a steeper, 9-degree inclination of the rear wing. Overall the car has 450 pounds of downforce at its top speed, some 82 pounds at the front and 348 pounds at the rear. The RS 4.0 gets to 100 km/hr (62 mph) in 3.9 seconds on the way to 193 mph.
This isn’t some kind of garage queen, either. As Zwart told us, “If my last GT3 RS 3.6 was any indication — it had 41,000 miles on it when I let it go — the 4.0 will be in for quite a ride. On Saturday I’m headed home to Northern California. I’m just a camera that records the world as I drive, so my car never stays parked for long.”
This is Zwart’s street car, so he selected his options appropriately. “Since I’m using it as my every-day car,” he says, “I got nav and XM satellite radio and all that funny stuff that really doesn’t line up for a full race car for the street, but I do need some things. Also I got a little red stitching inside.
"I deleted the graphics so I can go slightly low key. My last RS was black with black graphics, which worked well. I’m not a metallic paint kind of guy, so I asked for this in Dark Sea Blue, an old Porsche Cayenne color. It’s always dicey to order a color like this that is not usually available, but I must say I am very pleased how it came out.”
This car looks pretty good to us, too. The way Porsche has done the front of the RS 4.0 with contrast color is a little troubled, but together with the dark blue paint that Zwart has picked, we get kind of vibe that recalls Dan Gurney’s AAR Eagle F1 car , and Gurney also spent some good years driving Porsche F1 cars, too.
Zwart says, “Even though this car has rod ends in the rear suspension, I’m surprised how much better it rides the Los Angeles freeways than the RS 3.6. You’re almost never bouncing into the air like with the old car. And the power is so much more linear in the way it builds up and then just keeps going. I almost feel a little embarrassed because this RS isn’t really just a GT3 race car for the street. It’s a lot, lot better than that.”
We saw Zwart at Cars and Coffee just before he was leaving to drive home. He told us that he doesn’t have any plans for Pikes Peak this year, although you never know. He reports the commercial film business is very, very volatile, and says that the Super Bowl television commercials are kind of like an art fair for media specialists at the car-makers, and these 27 spots on TV do a lot to determine car advertising for the rest of the year. He also told us some of the background about his latest work, the Cadillac spot in which two CTS-Vs drive back to front – 41 mph (as fast as the car will go in reverse with a manual transmission), inches apart, no visual tricks, and no car damage afterward.
Zwart has been obsessed with Porsches since he was a kid and used to ride his Stingray bicycle around Huntington Beach, California, with his pal Freeman Thomas (now the director of advanced design at Ford) just looking for the sports cars from Zuffenhausen. He’s still such a Porsche enthusiast that he think his old Porsche 914 – the first car he ever bought with his own money (and not exactly from Zuffenhausen) – is cool.
He sent us some pictures he had taken of the RS 4.0 (everything you see here was made with his iPhone!) when he picked it up at Circle Porsche. Unlike so many professional photographers, Zwart loves making pictures, and just like any other new owner of a Porsche, he couldn’t help himself anyway. As Circle Porsche’s Michelle Larson told us, “It’s the best part of this business. Everybody leaves here happy; after all, they’re taking a Porsche with them.”
Michael Jordan, Executive Editor, Edmunds.com
csubowtie says:
10:56 AM, 02/ 6/12
I'm not usually a fan of Porsche, but with all the racing goodies, this one looks really cool. Some people live very enviable lives.
gearheadbrazil says:
04:28 PM, 02/ 6/12
This GT3 RS 4.0 just makes me forget of the GT2RS.
4 litre 6 cilinder normally aspirated engine with 500 hp?? This might be the best engine Porsche has ever made.
And go to hell those turbo shit (I love the turbo and the GT2, but...), GT3 is pure blueblooded aspirated power!
epbrown says:
04:48 PM, 02/ 6/12
I'm curious how Zwart will find the actual experience of racking up miles on the RS 4.0. What I like about the 997 GT3 non-RS is that the adjustable damping made it much more streetable than the 996 GT3, so I can see how he put 41k on the GT3 3.6 (which is pretty much the only 911 variant that interests me). From what I've read, the new one has swung back to a track-only focus (especially with the tires), so it won't be nearly as fun on the street.
ed124c says:
05:23 PM, 02/ 6/12
The 1% strikes again and again. Six hundred buyers. Wow.
wag2vr says:
03:55 PM, 02/ 8/12
You guys must really hate your 85 Carrera. 80% of all the blogs on it have nothing to do with the car itself.