SPECIAL FORCES

Manthey takes Porsche's 911 GT3 RS to a rarefied state of track-focused single-mindedness.

- PHOTOGRAPHY JACK HARRISON

There's some beef here. Or rather, pork. When the current 911 GT3 RS landed, it appeared Porsche - Zuffenhausen, the mothership - had finally pinned motorsport satellite Manthey into a development dead end.

This mattered because tiny Manthey's ability to turn a showroom-spec GT-division 911 into something even more special had always quietly frustrated Porsche, and especially division leader Andy Preuninger. Manthey would apply racing tricks that the factory, snared by endless homologation red tape, couldn't. Mightier wings, more aggressive geometries, belly-scraping ride heights: Porsche's RS people had the desire and the know-how but only Manthey, with its cottage status, could actually sell you anything. And boy did it reap the reputational rewards.

During the gestation of the 992-generation GT3 RS, something clearly snapped at Porsche. Test mules wore wings so huge that many assumed they were assessing aero for the Le Mans-bound 911 RSR. When the car was eventually revealed, we discovered that it had sacrificed its frunk in favour of a colossal motorsport-style central radiator, and that even its wishbones were sculpted to generate downforce. It was mutated in a way that made us wonder if its creators had lost touch with reality, but this was only the mark of a job well done. Where could Manthey possibly now take the package? Preuninger's scorched-earth engineering policy had left no avenues.

Or so we naively thought. Before us in the pits at Silverstone, radiating menace, is Nürburgring-based Manthey's take on the 992-era GT3 RS.