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"Patrick Long is a study in concentration, finely modulated aggression and economy of movement as he wrings out the high-performance sponge that is the production 911 GT3. Reflexive steering inputs arrest mid-corner twitches of yaw almost before they happen. His right hand darts from wheel to shifter to wheel again in milliseconds, recalling those slow-motion biology films where a frog zaps a hapless insect with a flick of its tongue. And always, always to the throttle early, taking keen advantage of the Porsche&amp;#039;s tail-heavy weight bias and sticky, wide Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires to stabilize the chassis mid-corner and rocket out of turns. It&amp;#039;s as if he&amp;#039;s always two steps ahead of the car, precisely why he&amp;#039;s a Porsche factory driver and I&amp;#039;m not.        2010 Porsche 911 GT3    &amp;quot;Usually, when I go from race car to road car on any given racetrack, I&amp;#039;m used to having to adjust quite a bit. In the GT3, it&amp;#039;s very easy to just jump in and go flat-out,&amp;quot; Long offered after our lapping session. &amp;quot;As soon as I hit the racetrack, I&amp;#039;m not really changing my braking zones, I&amp;#039;m really taking the same gears through the corners...it&amp;#039;s a pretty seamless transition.&amp;quot;   High praise indeed, and to the cynical mind, exactly what you&amp;#039;d expect a driver on the Porsche payroll to say. But fresh out of its wrapper, the production GT3 is downright brilliant, far nearer to its racing counterpart than several other cars on the GT grid. And that is born out by the nearby data...note that its 146-mph terminal speed at the end of Miller&amp;#039;s front straight is only about 10 mph less than the RSR&amp;#039;s, and that the stock car can pull a ribcage-squishing 1.11g average through Turns 5 and 6.        2010 Porsche 911 GT3    It&amp;#039;s a testament to the design of the original 911 that the positions of the race car&amp;#039;s significant masses correlate so closely to the production car&amp;#039;s\u2014i.e., engine, transaxle, driver location, front-mounted fuel cell\u2014quite a contrast to the BMW, for instance, whose racing seat and steering column have been moved noticeably aft in search of more favorable weight distribution. And although you can&amp;#039;t exactly stroll into the neighborhood Porsche dealer to purchase a 911 GT3 RSR, Porsche has long produced factory-built competition machines for both internal series and for sale to privateers\u2014the Cup Cars out of the Zuffenhausen factory; and since 2000, the &amp;quot;R&amp;quot; series built at Weissach comprising the GT3 R, GT3 RS and the GT3 RSR. This last iteration, built starting in 2008, competes in the ALMS GT series, as well as FIA GT and Le Mans competition. Each successive version has grown in both body width and displacement...at first 3.6 liters, then 3.8 and now 4.0 (if the series allows it).   In some ways, the race car is lower-tech than the street version. Consider that GT rules mandate cast-iron brake rotors, while the production GT3 can be ordered with carbon-ceramic equivalents; and the RSR&amp;#039;s 450-bhp flat-6 dispenses with both variable valve lift and a variable-volume intake plenum. It also revs to 9400 rpm (900 higher than the stocker) breathing through six individual throttle butterflies, and actuates its valves through simple, lightweight bucket tappets. Ethanol-rich E85 is the race fuel of choice.        Porsche 911 GT3 RSR    Of course, a big fat Michelin slick at each corner helps cornering speeds, and the team can choose among three different compounds each race weekend. Proportionately, the race car carries a lot more front tire to rear (300/310-mm widths, respectively, versus 235/305 stock) and those tires are precisely adjusted to the team&amp;#039;s testing-proven geometries with ball-jointed, rigid-subframe suspension\u2014MacPherson struts in front and multilink in back. Adjustable anti-roll bars are fitted front and rear, as are Sachs 4-way gas-pressure shocks. Quick shifts lower lap times, and a Porsche-built 6-speed sequential gearbox\u2014an all-new, lighter unit\u2014benefits from know-how applied from the RS Spyder sports prototype.   And let&amp;#039;s not overlook the contributions of less weight and more downforce in the quest for greater speed. No. 45 is 335 lb. lighter than its production counterpart, despite what looks like 300 lb. of additional rollcage tubing. Chalk it up to wafer-thin composite body panels, polycarbonate side and rear windows, and a gutted interior that&amp;#039;s nevertheless professionally finished with glossy white paint and delicate carbon-fiber shells replacing the dash, door panels and center console. For added aero stick there&amp;#039;s that massive rear wing and\u2014as part of the 2008 factory RSR redo\u2014redesigned air outlets ahead of the front wheel wells that both lower drag and evacuate more air for increased downforce.        Porsche 911 GT3 RSR    The Flying Lizard Team is an amazingly well-oiled organization; anything less couldn&amp;#039;t have won the ALMS GT2 Championship twice (2005 and 2009), both times with Long paired with teammate J\u00F6rg Bergmeister. As of this writing, the two lead the GT class&amp;#039; driver rankings, with the team currently 2nd behind the 1st-place tie of BMW Rahal Letterman Racing and Risi Competizione. So perhaps given their success, Flying Lizard Motorsports wasn&amp;#039;t exactly keen to give away any speed secrets. Suspension and brakes, especially, seemed to be off limits for photography. The situation is complicated by the fact that Porsche team drivers are essentially loaned to teams that are deemed capable of providing that driver with a winning mount. As an added perk, that team is also privy to new factory parts that are unavailable to smaller, relatively impoverished teams...parts that might show up in those photos. So I guess we can&amp;#039;t be too disappointed that Flying Lizard keeps an ace up its...er, wheel well.        2010 Porsche 911 GT3 &amp;amp;amp; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR    Parts is parts, but talent, physics and plain ol&amp;#039; gritting your teeth play a role in winning too. By the team&amp;#039;s own admission, its GT3 RSR isn&amp;#039;t the fastest car out there, but it may have some advantages in corner entry, exit and managing the tires. Says Long: &amp;quot;A lot of it is utilizing the differential to turn the car, where going to the throttle in a lot of the other cars could create understeer on exit. We can also trail-brake quite a bit, which has helped us overtake during the race...with the engine in back we can load the nose and not overpower the front tires.&amp;quot; Spoken like the true champion he is.   Up next:           \u00B7 : | |   \u00B7 : | |   \u00B7 : | |   \u00B7 : | |   \u00B7 : | | "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-comparison-tests/reviews/a16548/porsche-911-gt3-vs-911-gt3-rsr/>