Porsche 718 Spyder RS
The 911 GT3's 9,000-rpm flat-six dropped into an open-top Boxster — PDK only, no roof to hide behind.
GT3-derived 4.0, 9,000 rpm, PDK-only halo.
4 reviewers · 4 videos
Reviewers strongly agree on its performance and handling.
across 4 reviewers
Performance
4.5/5strong consensus“shifting at 9,000 RPM is so good”
positive · TheStraightPipes · ▶ 5:29“On some of these upshifts, I feel like it's even quicker than the 1.2 RS.”
positive · Jubbal & Cars · ▶ 16:26“once this engine comes on boil above around 6,000 it pulls so hard”
positive · Zygrene · ▶ 10:22Handling
5.0/5strong consensus“little handling through cliche corner feels amazing obviously because it's an RS”
positive · TheStraightPipes · ▶ 4:56“Both of them have this incredible immediacy to the steering, to the feedback, every bump, every little texture you can feel.”
positive · Jubbal & Cars · ▶ 17:45“there's this incredible sensation where when you start to Corner harder the car just rotates more”
positive · TheTopher · ▶ 24:50Fun to drive
5.0/5strong consensus“when you really wind it out from 8,000 to 9,000 RPM the sound becomes piercing absolutely intoxicating”
positive · Zygrene · ▶ 14:04“it really created an outstanding package”
positive · TheTopher · ▶ 30:39“Here, you're getting much more induction note.”
positive · Jubbal & Cars · ▶ 18:33Daily drivability
4.0/5strong consensus“this is much more approachable the suspension is so much more forgiving”
positive · Zygrene · ▶ 13:31“So, it is much more comfortable than the 4 RS.”
positive · Jubbal & Cars · ▶ 15:17“what I've appreciated is that it's fairly usable dayto day the ride is compliant”
positive · TheTopher · ▶ 9:04Value
3.5/5strong consensus“I understand the appeal of something like this, too.”
positive · Jubbal & Cars · ▶ 21:01“I ended up ranking the spider RS my number one car on my zy green performance index”
positive · Zygrene · ▶ 0:57“that's a lot of money and there's going to be a lot of markup on it”
TheStraightPipes · ▶ 25:00Mechanically, the Spyder RS swaps the GT4's 4.0 for the GT3-derived 9A2 Evo — the 992 GT3 and 718 GT4 RS engine — 493 hp at 8,400 rpm and a 9,000 rpm ceiling, fed by the intake snorkels mounted just behind the occupants' heads. It is PDK-only, like every modern RS; the manual that defined the lesser Spyders is gone by design. The hardware is GT4 RS: ball-jointed suspension, the RS aero and cooling package, carbon-ceramics optional. Where it places in the lineage, this is the open-top GT4 RS, not a trim of the regular Spyder — a separate, GT-grade halo. The +79 hp, the extra 1,000 rpm of redline and the unfiltered induction put it on a different tier, and Porsche frames it as the pinnacle of mid-engine open-top driving. It is also a full stop: the final newly-developed combustion-engine 718 before the line goes electric, which is why it was spoken for almost immediately. Where the manual Spyders were about lightness and analogue feel, the RS is about the GT engine — the most extreme the badge has ever been.
Hear it in the reviewer’s words
No primary articles scraped yet for this nameplate. Check back as the pipeline crawls more publications.
GT3-derived 9A2 Evo 4.0 shared with the 718 Cayman GT4 RS and 992 GT3. Process-air intake snorkels sit just behind the occupants' heads for the induction soundtrack. PDK-only. The final newly-developed combustion-engine 718 before the line goes electric.