SW2’S FIRST FORZA 3 TUNE IS OUT, BUT WHAT’S THE VERDICT?

Rennsport Porsche 911 GT3-RSR – R3 791



“It eats up the slow and twisty stuff faster than an elephant can eat a bag of peanuts”

SW2 are back and they’re back in style with their Rennsport Porsche 911 GT3-RSR tune. The team have given the standard R3 Class, Porsche 911 GT3-RSR a classy lick of paint courtesy of Speedba’s exploits with the Forza paint tools. As always with SW2 they’ve searched every proverbial nook and cranny for extra performance, and Dewstain has pulled out all the stops to get this Porsche going faster than anyone ever thought possible.

How does it look?

The Rennsport Porsche 911 GT3-RSR has a livery that is somewhat understated yet striking at the same time, with streaks of blue and red dancing along the Porsche’s exotic curves. Speedba has definitely managed to breathe some life into a generic Porsche shape with his refreshing work.

What’s the performance like?

Performance wise SW2 has gone to town with an increase of 75bhp meaning that the Rennsport Porsche 911 GT3-RSR has a tasty 540bhp at its disposal. The Porsche has also gone on a diet while in the SW2 garage and it now weighs 2,690lbs, rather than 2,701lbs which the standard racer used to carry.

Out on track all these performance gains appear to have done the trick and they equate to probably the best Porsche I have ever driven on Forza. However, the lap times tell a slightly different story. Firstly, the car was taken to Le Mans and the resulting lap times were uninspiring to say the least, struggling to break the 4 minute mark and ending the test with a best lap of 4.00.404. Now I’m no Le Mans expert and I will admit there are a lot of other tracks on the game that I excel at driving round more, but even in the right hands I have doubts over how much faster this car could go around the French circuit. Nonetheless, there were no dramas when driving the Porsche and the common complaint of the standard Porsche racer with its inherent nature to slide off aimlessly into the gravel trap, seems to have disappeared with this tune from SW2.

Next the Rennsport Porsche 911 GT3-RSR was taken to Suzuka in the hope of better results and there was a marginal improvement with consistent lap times around the 1.58/1.59 mark. The times were good, but by no means special. As I lapped the Suzuka circuit it dawned on me that this car cannot stand fast sweeping corners, it quite clearly detests them. I needed a track with much slower and more technical corners to really get the best out of the Porsche, so I headed off to Montserrat to give this tune one last roll of the dice. And what a last roll of the dice it was! The car excelled in the slower speed corners that Montserrat had to offer lapping them up like a cat that’s got the cream. The Porsche came alive in front of my very eyes and the faster lap times just kept on coming. With relatively little effort I managed to pull off a top 200 leader board time of 59.260, and with a little bit more effort the 58 second mark was well within grasp.

How does it handle?

Simply the best quality of this tune has to be how it handles through the tight and twisty stuff; it makes mincemeat of the slow technical corners that a number of high performance cars throw a complete fit over. The weight loss program has definitely done the Porsche good, but perhaps a little too much good as there were occasions where it felt too light and things got a bit sideways.

Would you feel cool pulling up to start line in it?

You probably would feel pretty cool driving this car. It possesses a very clean and refreshing livery that will attract gazes from other racers. The Porsche makes a nice enough sound, but will be sent home with its tail between its legs if it comes up against anything with some real grunt. The only thing that really will let you down is Porsche’s uninspiring styling, which obviously isn’t SW2’s fault.

Is it worth spending your hard earned credits on?

Well yes and no. There is no denying that it’s probably the best Porsche tune and paint job you can buy at the moment, but when it comes up against other marques’ offerings in the R3 Class this car will struggle to a certain extent. When I was testing it I just felt I could be having more fun in something like a Ferrari FXX and setting quicker lap times as well.

FINAL VERDICT

After driving the Rennsport Porsche 911 GT3-RSR it’s clear that the guys at SW2 have made this car the best it can possibly be. They have done nothing wrong with it and up against any other Porsche’s in the same class it should have no worries beating them, but against some of the other heavyweights in the R3 Class this car might well come unstuck. On the slow and twisty stuff it can definitely hold its own, but in the faster corners it has a tendency struggle.