Porsche built its last manual GT2 in 2010, closing out a tradition that began with the original 993 GT2 in the mid-1990s. Every GT2 that followed, the 996, the 997.1, and finally the 997.2, kept the same six-speed manual gearbox with no automated alternative offered to collectors. That final car also carried the RS badge, the first time Porsche had attached it to a GT2 at all, and the manual gearbox left the lineup the moment that badge reappeared on the next generation.
Under the engine cover sat a 3.6-liter twin-turbocharged flat-six built on Porsche's Mezger architecture, the same race-derived engine family that powered the 962 Group C car, the 911 GT1. That same architecture made its final appearance in naturally aspirated form in the 997 GT3 RS 4.0 as the last production Porsche with a Mezger flat-six engine. It produced 620 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, sent to the rear wheels exclusively through a six-speed manual gearbox paired with a single-mass flywheel.
Porsche chose the lighter flywheel specifically to cut weight, a decision that also made the clutch take-up noticeably firmer than on a standard car. That sharper power delivery and rear-engine turbo character is exactly what earned the GT2 lineage its "widowmaker" nickname, a reputation that started with the original 993 GT2 and followed every manual GT2 through this one.
That single-mass flywheel was one piece of a broader weight reduction program. Carbon fiber front fenders and hood, a plastic rear window, centerlock wheels, lighter carpeting, and an optional lithium-ion battery combined to shave over 150 pounds from the standard GT2. The finished car weighed 3,021 pounds, reached 60 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds, and topped out at 205 miles per hour.
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Porsche limited production of the 997 GT2 RS to 500 units worldwide, with only 132 of those delivered to the United States through Porsche Cars North America. That allocation makes it a genuinely scarce car within its primary collector market. The car backed up its straight-line numbers with a Nurburgring Nordschleife lap of 7 minutes and 18 seconds, a time that beat the Carrera GT.
Everything changed when the 991-generation GT2 RS arrived in 2017. The shift away from three pedals was not a matter of available tech, since the contemporary 997.2 Turbo had already offered PDK as an option the same year the GT2 RS launched. Porsche chose to keep the manual on its hardest GT2 anyway, then reversed that decision entirely for the next generation, moving the GT2 RS exclusively to a seven-speed PDK dual-clutch transmission. Frank-Steffen Walliser, head of Porsche Motorsport and GT cars at the time, said the manual was never seriously considered for that generation of the car.
That same logic carried through the 991.2 GT2 RS and is expected to continue with the next 992-based version of the car. Porsche reserves its three-pedal option for the GT3 lineup, where lower power figures and a naturally aspirated engine make a manual gearbox a more practical fit for everyday driving.
That divide leaves the 997 GT2 RS in a category of one within its own lineage. It remains the only GT2 RS variant a collector can buy with a manual gearbox, built in a run of just 500 examples between 2010 and 2011, and powered by the last Mezger-based engine Porsche ever put in a GT2.
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