[deggis]

Monza testing:
https://youtu.be/fogAtGRI-mA

Back in August, Porsche was at Monza Circuit with two of their Porsche 911 RSR-19 cars. As you may remember these '2019/2020' specs GTE racers featured a fully revised body kit, from a new front bumper and hood, new mirrors, rear diffuser, wing profile, to that new side exhaust system placed on the side of the car, just in front of the rear wheels. The RSR-19 introduced also an upgraded 4.2-liter flat-6 engine. Customers and private teams were still using the previous-gen 911 GTE car for the 2019/2020 season but it was obvious that sooner or later Porsche would have provided them the new spec RSRs.

So back to the actual video up here, these two RSR-19s weren't with the factory side exhaust but with a revised rear exiting arrangement, similar to the one of the infamous screming RSR 2017. The only 'problem' was the visible and audible presence of a muffler on this exhaust. Thanks to being back to a rear-central layout, the cars have in fact regained the high-pitched sound we all love and loved but sound level is quite far from the 2017-spec cars. It's in a good middle way between these and the GT3-class 911 GT3 R, to be fair.

Of course back in August I wasn't aware of what they were testing. I mean, I thought that new exhaust was there for their factory cars maybe in view of the (at that time) upcoming Le Mans 24h or a 2021 spec RSR but still for the factory team. But in these last months it turned out they were testing the RSR-19 GTEs as the private teams will received them starting from next year. It also seems confirmed by Porsche itself that this muffled exhaust layout has been tested and adopted to reduce and comply with new decibel limits coming in 2021 and also to allow teams to join test days at more race tracks where noise rules are stricter. In fact the RSR-19 with side exhaust was even louder than the 2017 RSR by a couple of dB while with this muffled exhaust it should be around 10 dB quieter.