2026 Porsche Flachbau RS one-off Photo by Porsche Sonderwunsch

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Of all the car brands in the world bent on building exotic one-off vehicles that rifle through the pages of company history for an appropriate muse, Porsche is certainly one with a very deep well of heritage from which to draw. It doesn’t hurt that a moneyed clientele is also able to write bank cheques to foot the builds.

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Enter the Sonderwunsch programme at Porsche, an assemblage of hyper-talented craftspeople able to design, create, and bring to life wild custom creations — most of which tip their hats to a milestone car from the automaker’s past. In this instance, you’re looking at the Flachbau RS, a one-off that started life as a 2018 911 GT2 RS from the make’s 991.2 era.

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Alert car freaks will remember the so-called “Slantnose,” a modified version of the 911 Turbo (Type 930) with a redesigned front end and pop-up headlights taking the place of traditional 911 round peepers. That design was based on the Porsche 935, a car that dominated endurance races for years; 948 examples were sold between the 1982 and 1989 calendar years. More than one young gearhead bought posters of a red one at Scholastic book fairs in elementary school.

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This time, the Sonderwunsch crew – along with development engineers from Weissach, Porsche Motorsport, and Manthey – spent the better part of three years transforming a 2018 911 GT2 RS with a Weissach Package into a modern Flachbau RS. Its namesake feature upfront incorporates new styling and a staggered headlight arrangement made possible with very narrow LED units. Even the Sonderwunsch mavens can’t slip pop-up lights past the nerdy lawyers. 

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The headlamps are very low at just half a metre above terra firma, a decision that hews to a legal definition and understandably helped shape the entire car. In fact, the customer requirement that the car be road-legal introduced many challenges to the designers, not the least of which was the headlight placement described above. Despite all the changes and additions, this creation is actually 31.6 kilos lighter than the source vehicle, thanks to carpetings and isolation, removal of the infotainment system, and the slantnose shape itself. At least the demanding front lights ended up being lighter than what was on the donor GT2. 

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Ending up with a road-legal car was important to the (unnamed) customer, meaning its powertrain is largely untouched. “Engine-wise, we didn’t change anything,” explained a Sonderwunsch rep during a call with Porsche during this Flachbau’s introduction on its home turf Germany. Likewise, those magnesium wheels are from the GT2 RS and painted black but, says the build team, not overly different from stock. Michelin Cup 2R tires are the rubber of choice.

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That gonzo rear wing with S-shaped mounts was apparently inspired by that of the 911 GT3 R Rennsport (Type 992) but is approximately five centimetres higher on the Flachbau RS. It can be manually fixed in a trio of positions to provide different levels of downforce, depending on track requirements.

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Pressed on price, Porsche reps remained mum, but did concede it is certainly into the seven figures. “Remember that each step costs money,” we were told, pointing to the fact that builds like these go through initial planning before design and eventual build phases — all of which need hefty cheques to proceed. They did cop to the Flachbau RS being owned by someone who does race cars, albeit not a widely known professional from F1 or something. We wager it’s a person with experience in an IMSA class that attracts privateers.

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And speaking of track experience, Porsche said the Flachbau RS owner initially wanted to set a lap time at the Nürburgring, but talked themselves out of such a feat after it was pointed out that setting a record time of that nature is an intense effort and extremely hard on a car. Not that the Flachbau RS couldn’t handle it, says Porsche, but the buyer would have been left with a machine decidedly less than one that was factory-fresh. Ah, first-world problems. Nevertheless, there was extensive testing at Weissach and on the Nordschleife.

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With the Flachbau RS, the Sonderwunsch programme has again proven itself eminently capable of making its customer’s dreams come to life — given enough cash, of course.

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