The 2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS is the hardcore track Porsche that’s the stuff of dreams: 518 horsepower, 0-to-60 mph in 3 seconds, a 9,000-rpm naturally aspirated flat-six, Formula 1-style active aero. It’s all obsessively engineered for hot, nasty speed in a way that makes me, a nerd, want to stare at it for hours.
Only the lucky few among us may be able to afford one, but that’s OK. We can still dream, and we can definitely still play with the zillions of options on Porsche’s online configurator, which is live here. So, show us: How would you spec the new GT3 RS?
Configurators are always neat, as you get to see exactly how much each upgrade is going to cost. While we can’t get the cool carbon fiber half-cage in the United States that other markets get, we can get the lightweight Weissach package, which exposes a lot more of the carbon fiber weave on the car’s body panels, tweaks the PDK paddles to have a more perceptible “click” when you shift and adds even more lightweight components, including extra components made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic and magnesium wheels. This upgrade is $33,520, per the configurator, but when you’re spec’ing out a track-oriented car that starts at $225,250, why wouldn’t you add all the extra go-fast bits? YOLO.
One of the more curious go-fast bits on offer are the 3D-printed bodyform full bucket drivers’ seats, which are available with soft, medium and hard cushions. It’s a $3,380 option, but when you really, really want to customize your car, why not spec seats for your butt’s specific preferences?
The latest 992-generation 911 GT3 RS doesn’t go too wild with the special colors, as Shark Blue and Python Green are the defaults if you want to go bright, with GT Silver Metallic, Ice Grey Metallic and Arctic Grey rounding out the selection. These are all $4,220 upgrades, and frankly, worth it. If a line-up of GT3 RSes doesn’t look like a row of the world’s angriest Skittles, we have failed as a society.
Yet Porsche is highlighting Paint to Sample right underneath as an $18,240-plus option (depending on how custom you’re getting there with paint development). So, here’s hoping some lovable wackadoodle digs into the back catalog and specs a Moonstone lilac RS, or walks into the dealership asking Porsche’s Sonderwunsch department to match the bright wax coating off of a wheel of cheese.
The lone downside is that the configurator doesn’t have the full Paint to Sample back-catalog you’d find on somewhere like Rennbow, and if you select the $19,500 “color-match my cheese wheel” Paint to Sample Plus option, it just displays the car’s color as black as you’re playing with it. Womp womp. That’s all the more incentive to spec more Porsches in Aubergine in real life, folks.
Personally, I couldn’t bear looking at a plain car while I played around with the configurator, so I went with one of my all-time favorite standard colors (a $0 option!), Guards Red. Here’s my $272,830 spec—mostly practical, but complete with a $641 “Grello”-liveried car cover for giggles—but I’m more curious what you came up with. On a car that even lets you customize the color of the active aero rear wing hydraulic cylinders to match a theme, please, do take your time, but put those specs in the comments for all to see.
Got a tip? Want to let us drive your RS? Email the author: stef@thedrive.com
Correction [Friday, August 19, 2022, 2:44 p.m. ET]: You can make Paint to Sample show more colors after all, and the above text has been updated to reflect this. Hat-tip to Brent Ozar for the heads-up.