Porsche Announces Most Powerful 911 in History… at the Video Game Expo
Porsche unveiled its most powerful production 911 in history and not exactly where you’d expect. Dodge saved the unveiling of its much-teased Challenger SRT Demon for the New York International Auto Show, so where did Porsche choose to present the new GT2 RS? The Electronic Entertainment Expo — the world’s premiere video game convention.
There are two ways to look at this sacrilege. You can either take offense, accusing the brand of betraying its fervent automotive base, or you can see this as one of the smartest marketing choices it could have made. E3 has a lot of eyes on it and video games are a booming industry. For a long time Porsche cars weren’t even in most video games, thanks to an exclusive deal made with Electronic Arts. When that ended, the brand slipped its cars into Forza Motorsport 6 through downloadable content, and the GT2 RS is on the cover of Forza Motorsport 7.
Bound to Electronic Arts, which has produced lackluster and over-the-top racing games for the past few years, Porsche was relegated to goofy arcade style romps with a Fast and Furious mindset — like Need for Speed. But Forza is a very different franchise, aimed specifically at enthusiasts who at least have some cursory understanding of motorsports and prefer a simulation-adjacent experience.
However, anchoring itself to a video game that offers authenticity isn’t the most important thing. Porsche knows Forza 7 is the game enthusiast are waiting for and that the cars you drive virtually in your formative years sear themselves into your brain forever.
According to The Verge, the new 911 GT2 RS uses a 3.8-liter twin-turbo flat-six to send 640 horsepower exclusively to the rear wheels. Beyond the paint job, that’s really all we know. Microsoft, which streamed the event live, was pretty spartan on the actual specs of the real world car — understandable since they aren’t an automaker. But Porsche hasn’t issued a press release either, and we’ve only seen spy shots of the car before its weekend unveiling. Hopefully that is soon to change because, as good as the video game looks, we’re still more curious about the Porsche.
[Image: Microsoft Studios]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
More by Matt Posky
Comments
Join the conversation
"Ze new 911 must have two characteristics: Ze price must be higher than any 911 ever. Und like all 911s, it must look slightly less like a Beetle then ze previous model."
Just what the world needs...a disposable car that costs too much and goes too fast for anyone to use on public roads. Porsche has completely lost their sense of perspective. If they want to recreate the classic Porsche experience, create a new 356 using a 1.7 liter flat four that hangs its ass out back...and priced it at $40k. No all wheel steering, no sport chrono, no nanny controls, no 20" wheels, no PDK, no power seats or power windows or power top or sunroof...manual operation only. Think it can't be done? Someone is already doing it, but it isn't Porsche.