Scorchers: McLaren 600LT Vs. Porsche 911 GT3 RS
The scorched main straight at Willow Springs is, for once, dotted with shallow puddles, and the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS kicks up a thin haze of water as it howls over the starting line. It鈥檚 been freezing cold and pouring rain in the desert for most of the day, but the clouds finally burned off an hour ago, and the wind whipping across the track quickly dried the surface. Pools of water on the straight are steaming in the sun, and professional driver Randy Pobst reports the track is almost perfect for lap times. McLaren flew out two engineers and a racing driver from the U.K. 鈥檚 paying off. The 600LT鈥攁 2019 Automobile All-Star鈥攈as already blitzed the Porsche in wet conditions due to some clever tire strategy. Can it hold the advantage now that both cars are on their ultimate track-focused rubber, the Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R, respectively?
This is the culmination of four days of filming for 鈥淗ead 2 Head鈥?(check it out on MotorTrend OnDemand). Although it shouldn鈥檛 matter what lap time a professional race car driver can wring out of these machines around a racetrack, well, it really does. 200,000 on a track-day hero, you would probably like to know it鈥檚 quicker than the other track-day heroes available at a similar price, right? One thing鈥檚 for sure: It matters to the McLaren guys. We鈥檝e already dynoed these cars and discovered the 600LT has more than an additional 100 hp at the wheels than the Porsche. We weighed them, too. Another victory for the carbon-fiber wedge: It鈥檚 nearly 150 pounds lighter. You might not expect us to say this, but this is good news. We wanted to load the dice against Porsche for once. The company has a habit of winning, you see. The same is true of magazine tests, but the sheer attrition of a video shoot only heightens the strengths Porsche so often demonstrates.
This is the showdown where a Porsche might finally lose. So why do Porsches in general鈥攁nd 911s in particular鈥攁lways perform so strongly? It鈥檚 a math thing. Video simply takes a lot longer to capture than stills. That means more seat time (great for us) and more time ripping up the same piece of closed road at maximum attack, hauling on the brakes, turning around, and doing it all over again. Endurance is almost as important as the absolute peaks of performance. Porsche is pretty good at endurance. It鈥檚 the same at the track. We need to get the times first and foremost, but illustrating that on video means completing dozens more laps, emergency stops, and, obviously, getting the time-honored sideways shots in the bag. It鈥檚 punishing for the cars, sometimes wincingly so. I鈥檓 not proud to say it, but sometimes cars are returned with noisy brakes and we鈥檙e left feeling thoroughly jaded. They barely seem to notice. Consistent, confidence-inspiring, and tough as nails.
The more time you spend beating up on them, the more you appreciate just how special they are. 309,310, and McLaren claims its 3.8-liter twin-turbo V-8 produces 592 hp and 457 lb-ft of torque. The test team had already weighed the 600LT, and it came in at 3,101 pounds. The latest GT3 RS is barely on the same page. 225,940. However, its 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat-six trades raw power for precision, revs, and a noise to die for. Porsche claims it makes 513 hp at 8,250 rpm and 346 lb-ft at 6,000 rpm. We measured it at 3,245 pounds. For the record, it should be noted we weigh our cars with a full tank of gas; this GT3 RS has the huge optional 23.7-gallon tank. On the linked dyno at K&N Engineering鈥檚 brilliant facility in Riverside, California, the gap widens. So, an easy win for McLaren? Let鈥檚 not be too hasty.