Feast your eyes on Porsche’s fiendish self-embrace, a devilish pat on its own back. That’s right, the GT2 RS’s primary reason for being is for the heroic German automaker to reassert itself atop the Nürburgring lap-time pack. And, at 7 minutes 18 seconds—a whopping 14 seconds quicker than the ’08–’09 GT2—it leaves the Corvette ZR1, the Nissan GT-R, the Ferrari 458, the Dodge Viper ACR, and pretty much every other production car in the dust. If you’re still questioning the $167,200 premium over a base 911’s price, also note that the GT2 RS is the first Porsche to one-up the Ring time of another P car, the exotic *Carrera GT.

Although the RS suffix (for rennsport, German for “racing sport”) is usually reserved for the street-legal homologation versions of racing models, Porsche defensibly decided that this latest GT2 is hard-core enough to deserve the prestigious label anyway. After all, it’s the most powerful Porsche street car ever and the ultimate, 500-unit send-off for the current 997-generation 911, about a quarter of which will be headed to the United States.

Naturally, horsepower is a component. Dating back to the GT1 Le Mans racer of the late ’90s, the GT2 RS’s twin-turbo, 3.6-liter flat-six was originally a motorsports design and, with constant updating, has been the go-to powerplant for Turbo, GT3, and GT2 models over the past decade. Though it can never match the breathtaking 8400-rpm wail of the naturally aspirated GT3’s engine, this latest boosted variant continues to retain much of the edgy, raspy character that’s often lost in the turbocharging process. It’s a welcome sound overlaid by a 23.2-psi peak hurricane of boost, an increase of 2.9 psi. Along with a more effective intercooler, the GT2 RS achieves 620 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque without increasing the 3.6-liter displacement—that’s 90 horses more than the GT2, 120 over and above the current Turbo, 205 more than the 996 Turbo (’01–’05), and a pretty phenomenal 172 horses per liter. Still, the new car is slightly more efficient than the GT2 and is expected to continue to shirk gas-guzzler penance in the U.S.

But even more wowing is the meticulous—almost surgical—150-pound paring of mass throughout the car, adding up to a 3050-pound curb weight that undercuts everything from the 996 GT2 of a decade ago to the carbon-fiber-tubbed Carrera GT. And the GT2 starting point—which had ditched the back seat and featured carbon-ceramic brakes, a titanium exhaust, and various carbon-fiber bits—was already impressive.

Here’s a sampling of the reductions: a single-mass flywheel, 18 pounds (it also seriously hastens the engine’s off-idle response); a carbon-fiber hood (versus aluminum), 5.5 pounds; strategically replacing steel with aluminum for various suspension bits and using two-piece rear springs as well as front springs with fewer coils, 10 pounds; single-lug wheels, 6.6 pounds; swapping the steel hubs of the brake rotors for aluminum, 11 pounds; optional carbon-fiber front fenders (formerly steel), 11 pounds; optional lithium-ion battery, 22 pounds. Porsche even eliminated nine pounds from the carpeting. Working in the opposite direction, U.S.-bound cars have airbag-equipped seats that are 11 pounds heavier (apiece) and rear glass instead of plexiglass, which adds back 8.8 pounds.

The six-speed manual carries over as the lone transmission, with high-effort though extremely positive and precise shifting action intact. Porsche’s dual-clutch PDK doesn’t bolt up to this engine; plus, it would unacceptably undo half of the weight savings.