Revealed: top 5 lightest water-cooled Porsche 911s

At the time of its launch the 997.1 GT3 RS was chastised for only saving 20kg over its GT3 sibling, with identical power and torque figures. But as with all Porsche, many small differences (take the wider body and track width, slightly longer wheelbase, and tweaked damping) add up to a much bigger picture. The first generation 997 Rennsport is a spectacular drive and, in our opinion, one of the most underrated RS derivatives.

The 997.1 GT3 RS’s weight saving shouldn’t be scoffed at either, as it’s typically obsessive from Porsche: the rear wing and bucket seats are made of carbon fibre, a single-mass flywheel saves another 8kg, while Perspex replaces glass aft of the b-pillar, saving another 3kg. As journalist Jethro Bovingdon points out, though the figure above is its DIN weight, the car’s dry figure of 1250kg is just 65kg heavier than the bona fide GT3 Cup race cars. At 1,375kg with fluids, this underrated Rennsport also claims fifth place in the lightest Porsche 911 of the modern era. 

The 2016 Porsche 991 R is undoubtedly THE car of the DFI-engined 911 era. A car which melded near GT3 RS levels of performance with an ‘everyday’ 911 look, the R’s legacy has been the GT3 Touring and even Carrera T concepts as drivers seek purist-style engagement and an understated appearance.

The R carries over the 991.1 GT3 RS’s 500hp engine and notable weight-saving tricks such as a magnesium roof and lightweight rear glass, but still manages to tip the scales at some 50kg lighter than that aforementioned Rennsport. Its celebrated, six-speed manual gearbox saves 20kg over the RS’s PDK, plus the R makes use of carbon front wings and a significant reduction in sound deadening, the latter alone good for a 4.5kg culling of weight. Tellingly, there’s no big, fixed rear wing, the R staying true to those early Neunelfers with its traditional ‘flatback’ appearance.

To our mind the most iconic 911 of the modern era, the R is perhaps the quintessential ‘less is more’ Neunelfer, for its subtle lines really do cloak a performance monster, and a lightweight special.

Perhaps the most glorious of parts bin specials ever to come out of Andreas Preuninger’s fabled Motorsport department, the 997 GT3 RS 4.0 always has been, and always will be, a legendary Porsche 911. Today, it sits right at the junction of old and new: it’s the last ever manual GT3 RS, the last RS with a passive rear axle, yet the first with a now customary 4.0-litre atmospheric flat six pushing out 500bhp. The GT3 RS 4.0 was a lesson in lightweight materials, its engine featuring titanium con rods and even borrowing a GT3 RSR’s crankshaft, while the rest of the car features extensive carbon fibre, perspex windows, lightweight wheels and even a sticker replacing the bonnet’s usual enamel crest. One of the most revered 911s ever made, the 997 GT3 RS 4.0 is the joint third lightest water-cooled 911 of all time.

GT3 genesis: that’s the 996.1 GT3’s contribution to the 911 story. Heralding a new era of Porsche Motorsport cars where the GT3 became the de facto step-up from Carrera derivatives (rather than Carrera to Carrera RS as per the air-cooled era), the 996.1 is also the only GT3 generation without an RS ahead of it in the pecking order, furthering its ever-increasing appeal among enthusiasts.

As our buying guide states, the 996.1 GT3 is a complete rework of the 996.1 Carrera: it features a dry-sumped (and higher revving) ‘Mezger’ engine, better brakes, and a revised chassis. And yet, for all its performance gains over the Carrera, the 996.1 GT3 actually weighs in heavier than the Carrera on which it is based…

Yep, unbelievably the lightest Porsche 911 of the water-cooled era was also the first. It is not a special edition, it is not a Porsche GT car, nor is it part of a limited or numbered production run. Instead, the quintessential liechtbau 911 of the modern era is the humble 996.1 Carrera. Produced between 1997-2001, the rear-drive 996 marked a new dawn for Porsche with its water-cooled engine, ‘fried egg’ headlight design and ‘just-in-time’ approach to production. A car that’s not always been accepted by purists (though it’s finding its feet nicely among enthusiasts these days), it is therefore a startling fact that in the 22 years since its production ceased, not a single Porsche 911 to roll out of Zuffenhausen – or Weissach, for that matter – is lighter than the 996.1 Carrera. In fact, the 996.1 C2 is lighter than the entirety of the 993 generation before it, too, save for the Carrera RS.