2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS to miss out on manual gearbox option

Porsche’s fastest car – the upcoming 911 GT2 RS - won’t have the manual gearbox option that’s made a return on the GT3.

However, the sports car maker has confirmed it plans to offer a self-shifting gearbox for a long time yet, bucking the trend set by supercar rivals such as Lamborghini and Ferrari, each of which has dropped a manual option.

Speaking at the 2017 Geneva motor show, Porsche boss Oliver Blume confirmed a long mooted 911 GT2 RS was around the corner, adding that it would continue the GT2 tradition of “big power”.

“GT2 – I know this model,” he joked when asked about the car. “In the past it was a very famous, famous model and maybe in future we will have a GT2 as well.”

As with previous models, the GT2 - which has already been spied testing in prototype form - will apply the same track-focused, hardcore driving experience injected into the GT3.

However, whereas the 911 GT3 uses a naturally aspirated horizontally-opposed six-cylinder engine, the GT2 will get a twin turbo version.

Like the GT3, the new 911 GT2 will drive only the rear wheels.

But whereas Porsche has just reinstated a manual option for the 2017 911 GT3 (below)– it’s half a second slower to 100km/h than the PDK auto – Blume confirmed the GT2 would stick with the PDK.

“That’s another philosophy, because there you are talking about a Turbo engine [the high power 911 Turbo engine, not the regular turbocharged engines in other 911s, which are still available with a manual] and the manuals we are putting more in the GT3,” he said. “It will be PDK driven.”

As for power outputs, no word yet from Porsche.

However, you can guarantee it will be comfortably more than the 427kW from the 911 Turbo S, currently the most powerful version of the 911.

“For the GT2 it is very typical to have big power,” said Blume. “Today we can’t talk about power but when we launch the car I think you will see at which level we can get to with the car - and we’re still working at it.”

Something north of 460kW seems likely.

It will be a fitting last hurrah for the current capital-T “Turbo” engine used in the 911.

For the major update to the 991 version of the 911 – which is expected in 2018 – the 911 Turbo family will pick up a larger version of the new turbocharged engine family used across the rest of the 911 range.

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