Watch This 911 GT3 Rally Car Fly Through the Woods

I feel for right-seaters in rally cars, I really do, especially on gravel. Even while reading the pace notes, they are completely at the mercy of the driver. On this test route, the person in the navigator’s position appears to be simply acting as ballast. Based on their clothing, they may well be an unsuspecting member of the team. I’m sure they were fitted with a helmet and gently coerced, or stuffed kicking and screaming, into the Porsche. The view over the dash in this GT3 is very standard for a modern 911 racecar, save the for tall handbrake and rally computer. The view out the windscreen is something else entirely.

Tuthill Porsche’s RGT rally kit is designed to make 997 and 991-generation cars competitive R-GT class rallying. The car in the video is slated to run in a Spanish rally series this season. While 911s are no strangers to rallying, it is still unusual to see a modern 911 on a gravel rally stage. Like its forebears (and many current “Safari” 911s) the car looks very much at home on the loose surface and over the bumps. The longer suspension travel and narrower tires seem to play in to the 911’s inherent strengths, especially when getting power down out of a corner.

Tuthill Porsche is making a serious name for themselves in rallying with their RGT programme. The first WRC-eligible RGT competed in the 2014 Rally Deutschland. At the close of the event, Richard Tuthill’s GT3 became the first Porsche to finish a WRC event in 28 years.

The R-GT class is currently very small. Regular entrants are limited to just 911 GT3s, the Lotus Exige S R-GT and Fiat 124 Spider G-GT. Additional passports are issued to individual cars at the FIA’s discretion. The added diversity is more than welcome amidst the sea of Subarus, Volkswagens and Mitsubishis seen at most WRC events.