Porsche 911 GT3 RSR - White heat - 2009

Porsche has revealed its most powerful 911 racer yet, the 2009 GT3 RSR.

Set to compete in GT2-class endurance races – last year’s RSR secured wins in the American Le Mans Series and the Nurburgring 24 Hours – the RSR is, as you’d expect, powered by Porsche’s faithful boxer six engine, bored out from 3.8  to 4.0 litres.

It’ll develop 450bhp at a mighty 8000rpm, which is a plenty impressive figure but still less powerful than the GT3 RS, GT2 or 911 Turbo road cars. That’s because GT2 engines are limited in the size of their air restrictors, but the RSR should be as tough as nails – after all, it has been created to run flat out for 24 hours without so much as a cough.

The RSR will leave your Turbo for dead on the track, though. Thanks to a lightweight bodyshell, it weighs about the same as a child’s shoe, and has received a whole bunch of aerodynamic revisions to make it lovely and slippery through the air.

If you’re thinking an RSR might be just what you need for those weekend trackday battles against tuned Corsas and Dutton kit cars, be warned it doesn’t come cheap. The RSR costs 380,000 Euros – plus VAT – and Porsche doesn’t expect to build more than 20 or so this year.

Suddenly that £100,000 Turbo looks like a bit of a bargain, doesn’t it?