Jeff Zwart is not quite the king of the mountain, because he’s never actually won the Pikes Peak Hill Climb overall, but he should be the prince at least, since he’s registered so many class wins, all in street-legal cars.
The wins also have been all in Porsches, since Zwart has been obsessed with them 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. Though Zwart is now a well-known photographer and maker of commercial films (notably for Porsche), he still thinks his old Porsche 914 – the first car he ever bought with his own money (and not exactly from Zuffenhausen) – is cool.
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, a car that gets around the Nordschleife in 7 min 27 sec. 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. Zwart told us, “If my last GT3 RS 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 to Northern California. I’m just a camera that records the world as I drive, so no car 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. 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.”
It 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 grabbed his iPhone and did some pictures of his new car, both at Circle Porsche and next to his race shop. Just another new Porsche owner, he couldn’t help himself. As Circle Porsche’s Michelle Larson says, “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
Here's Zwart's run up Pikes Peak in a street-legal Porsche 911 GT2 RS.
cjasis says:
04:14 PM, 02/ 2/12
Stunning, stunning and stunning. I'm sure ZR-1 man will pop in here about how much better a Corvette is and the GT-R fanbois will too but I don't care.... this is stunningly beautiful and from what I've read an absolute beast of a car.
Many happy safe miles Jeff.
jawnathin says:
06:17 PM, 02/ 2/12
Oh look, another car with 'cheater tires'. If he gets caught in the rain, he will surely parish!
/s
agnh says:
05:24 AM, 02/ 3/12
Simply awesome, a GT3 RS as his "daily driver". Zwart is a true Petrol Head.
miamifan1 says:
05:32 AM, 02/ 3/12
Zwart took the above pics with his iPhone?
sp23ms3 says:
08:46 AM, 02/ 3/12
cjasis, I am a GTRfanboi. That said the GT3 RS 4.0 is stunning, esepcially without the decals. Congrats Jeff on the new car.....super jealous.
Mike Magrath replied to comment from miamifan1
09:18 AM, 02/ 3/12
He did.
-mm
sharpend says:
11:41 AM, 02/ 3/12
Most impressive is the ability of a pro photographer to take terrific photos with even a mediocre camera.
mckman says:
01:15 PM, 02/ 3/12
sharpend +1
cjasis +1
Don't we all aspire to do something like this?