996 GT3 and 996 GT3 RS in detail. The differences explained! 

Since the GT3 RS is not available in North America, many of us 996 GT3 owners have turned our cars into sleeper track weapons. It is a fantastic car. I do have an aftermarket exhaust and the sound is glorious.

Excellent vid! And on what everyone knows is the best gt3 😉

I used to daily a comfort spec GT3, back when they were "cheaper". Such a fun car.

Thank you very very much for this comparison! Keep up the good work :)

Great video. Very interesting. Thanks for making it.

I must have watched this unique video more than 20 times by now, love both versions, would be thrilled to own any of them.

Interesting video but please drop the dreadfully intrusive background music next time!

Well done comparison of two very significant machines. One day...

Great video chaps.

LOVE this video! Big 996 GT3 fan. Anyone have a link to the video they mentioned about comparing all the GT3 models? Thanks!!

Great Video! Friend of mine races a modified RS in Austria. Just awesome! 🇦🇹

Great vid

Very informative

There was no direct mention to the original reason why Kussmaul suggested a homologation version. I have only read english speaking reports of it and they all referer to wheel journals. This leaves a bit interpretation. Especially with the MacPherson unit when you lower the car the roll centers fall much more than the lowering is - typically 10 mm ride lowering falls roll centers about 27 mm. In terms of roll this difference partly negates the gain by lowering CoG. Also the MacPeherson tends to loose its camber gain when it is lowered. The Carreras were designed to have 0.25 deg/cm or 15 mins/cm camber gain but when you drop a MacPherson car by 40 mm there is hardly any gain left. Sure they is not much suspension travel either in a track car but all this really refers to the need of new set of pick up points. The journals can also refer to the hub bearings. This is the time that car industry (unfortunately) went for hub units instead of conical rollers. Hub units are ok for straight driving but hard cornering the load capacity numbers are simply too low (in F1-cars they can change the ball bearings after every start). The journalists always deal with Andreas Preuinger about the GT3s. I wish someone would make a deep interview with Kussmaul because he is actually the guy behind the 996 RS-idea and was very much in charge of the road to race conversions at Weissach. I also want to make a remark about Carrera vs. GT3. First, IMO, the real difference in the powerline. The Mezger is truly extra-ordinary good where as the Carrera engine is only good by performance and it has some reliability issues. It is definitely better than its reputation but it is no rugged race engine like the Mezger. Then when it comes to handling, the GT3 is not a very road friendly car. It is a car designed to be driven on a race track and the RS even more so. When it comes to handling on a normal worn roads with pot holes and all kinds of irregularities - the Carrera is better, hands down better. And even the Carrera suspension has been critizised to bee too harsh for theB-roads[e.g. Steve Bennett, ex-editor of 911&PW]. I have upgraded my Carrera with Bilstein B16/PSS10 and Powerflex bushes. Frankly I can not say it is better than the OEM standard suspension on a B-road. Stiffness helps some things but worseness some. Stiffness eats suspension travel and the wheels can have hard time following the irregular road. Another key difference between road and track is that at tracks you can usually have relaively stiff AR-bars where as on the road they easily make the car too warp-stiff and this upsets the corner weights on an uneven road or a twisted propeller road, cambered turn-ins. One observation about the Carrera-GT3-RS axis is that we tend to rely a lot to car journalists and they keep using words like ”ultimate 911” which I find rather misleading. Tim here used the word too but I do not really see him as a car journo but a top racing driver with touring and sports cars. The Carrera-GT3 difference: Really, it is horses for the courses. A Carrera is really a sports-GT car where as the GT3 is a sports-racing car. A Carrera is basically a daily car where as the GT3 and especially the RS are special cars for weekends and tracks. The reputation of the GT3 is there for a reason. However, a GT3 is a spcialized tool and I find it a bit unfair to compare it with a Carrera because the other one is a kettle and the other a frying pan. They are made for different purposes. And like I said, controversially, on a typical worn out B-road, the Carrera is a better tool, regardless what some chris harris’, bonvingdons and catchpoles say.

Having owned a Mk1 CS with a full cage and a .2 without I would have said the extra noise is due to the transmission of noise through the roll cage from the floor.

Since you mentioned 'throttle response', I'll have to admit that I felt like my 6-3 had a rag stuck in the exhaust. Heel/toe was nary impossible due to the horrible throttle lag. Turns out it is simply solved by throttle mapping. I dropped in a Sprint Boost throttle mapper (3 levels/7 sub levels ea) and *thankfully* solved the sleepy throttle problem. Mr. Mezger sure got the rest of this one juuuuust right.

Here's something of a sacrilegious question: is it possible to reversibly retrofit the headlights and front bumper of a 996.1 to a 996.2 GT3, given it's a narrowbody car? I never liked the facelift features.

Cool!

Anyone know if the wheels are different other than colour?

Gear ratios are the same for both GT3 and RS. I’m pretty sure the engines are identical too. Also the ex factory weight difference was more like 20kg not 50kg. 👍🏻

I think you hear the engine more on the gt3 rs because of the rear perspex window

Aren’t the wheels magnesium on the RS?

Think I would have to have the standard gt3 Don’t like the roll cage in the rs

Differences between Porsche 996 GT3 MK1 and 996 GT3 MK2 ?...

Narrow body 3RS ftw

Why no center console delete?

996 GT3’s should be like $80k…these $150k cars are insane.