The steering wheel of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS is equipped with four dials and five buttons that allow drivers to control various aspects of the car’s performance, including drive modes, damper compression and rebound, stability and traction controls, differential lock, and drag-reduction system (DRS). Despite being a common feature in video games, it’s far from being mundane. In fact, there are 6561 potential combinations for the dampers alone, but according to Porsche GT boss Andreas Preuninger, there’s no such thing as a bad setting – it all depends on the driver’s personal preference.
When you activate the DRS (Drag Reduction System) in the GT3 RS, it causes a shift in the angle of attack for both the rear wing and front fender elements. This can effectively reduce drag while in motion. With DRS activated, the GT3 RS is capable of producing 674 pounds of downforce at a speed of 183 mph. However, the downforce nearly triples to an impressive 1896 pounds when the system is not active and the car is traveling at a speed of 177 mph. In fact, this level of downforce even surpasses that of a 911 Carrera Cup automobile!
To tweak the suspension compression and rebound parameters, simply press the center button on the upper-left dial. The left-side dials will then allow you to control compression, while the right-side dials will handle rebound (with the top controlling the front and the bottom controlling the rear). You can adjust these settings in nine different steps, ranging from –4 to +4.
To modify the differential lock, simply press the central button on this dial. Note that only the left-side dials are utilized for changing the lock setting while not accelerating (top), and while in motion (bottom). You have a range of nine steps to choose from, ranging from -4 to +4.
To choose your driving mode on this dial, simply press the center button. You have three options: Normal, Sport, or Track. If you want to change other settings like display mode or active aero, you can do so in the submenus. For the full steering wheel experience, select Track mode.
To modify traction and stability-control settings, you can press the center button on the dial. The dial located at the lower-right corner of the console can now be toggled to turn off, turn on, or switch to dynamic stability control mode. The upper-right dial can be adjusted to set traction control at eight different levels, ranging from zero to seven. It’s worth noting that dynamic traction control can only be accessed in dynamic stability control mode, while turning off traction control is only possible in the stability-control-off mode.
When Jörg Bergmeister set the record-breaking 6:49.3 lap time at Nordschleife, he only made a few adjustments to the front and rear rebound settings, setting them at +2 and +3, respectively.
