Manthey Racing turns 30 with two Porsche race cars, 15 built of each

Manthey Racing has marked three decades in motorsport with two limited-edition race cars: the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup MR 30, which starts the bigger transformation, and the 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport MR 30, which takes the opposite approach. Just 15 of each will be built, 30 cars for the company's 30th birthday.

Both cars make their public debut at the DTM finale at the Hockenheimring in Germany. The launch arrives the same week Porsche announced it had raised its stake in Manthey to 67 percent, to widen its reach across racetrack and road performance beyond its own GT models.

What the 911 GT3 Cup MR 30 changes

Manthey started from a 992.1-generation chassis, because 992.2 Cups are still being built for race teams, then grew the water-cooled flat-six to 4.2 liters for roughly 560 horsepower. That output brings the special edition close to the 911 GT3 R campaigned in IMSA, WEC and DTM.

Manthey places its finished car between the 4.0-liter 911 GT3 Cup and the GT3 R. The company would not disclose how high the engine will rev, though it said the unit could take more than 9200 rpm, like the race cars competing today.

Director of Race Cars and Motorsports Products Jan-Helmut Brakhage said collectors could be the most interested buyers, though he hopes for someone else. In his words: "someone who is genuinely curious about how a 4.2-liter feels in a Cup car. I would like them to race these cars."

The displacement bump revives an older side of Manthey's craft. The company famously offered GT3s with bigger pistons, including a 3.9-liter conversion for the 996 generation, before its modern kits turned toward aero, brakes, suspension and wheels.

The MR 30's aero and cooling package has already been proven in customer racing on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Manthey says. An earlier development car with less power turned a 7:58.605 lap of the NLS configuration in warmer summer months, so the finished car has more in it.

Carbon fiber is added inside and out, and a lighter carbon unit replaces the factory intake box. The wing is about 180 centimeters wide. Manthey also converts the 911 to a central-radiator layout, for better airflow and a cooling system less vulnerable in contact.

Larger brake-cooling inlets manage heat, while a new splitter, underbody and the bigger wing add downforce. Widened arches allow a track increase of 20 mm at the front and 50 mm at the rear. Manthey forges the wheels itself in Germany, and they remove about 8.4 pounds of unsprung mass.

Six-way-adjustable dampers, revised spring rates and retuned suspension give the car more adjustability than what races today. In Europe, before taxes, tariffs and trucking, it costs the rough equivalent of 419,400 euros. Porsche Motorsport North America offers it in the US for $580,000, including import duties and freight.

The Cayman send-off

On the 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport MR 30, Manthey skipped extra displacement and focused on weight, aero and cooling, as a farewell to the outgoing Cayman. The car culminates more than a decade of development, back to the homologation kit for the 981-generation Cayman GT4 Clubsport.

Carbon-fiber fenders, lightweight headlights and a vented hood, bumpers, splitter, decklid, giant wing and diffuser trim about 12.5 pounds against the standard GT4 RS Clubsport. The 493-hp flat-six is left mostly unchanged and revs to 9000 rpm.

Like the 911, the Cayman gets a central radiator and upgraded brake cooling, some of it traced to Manthey's 911 GT2 RS Clubsport Evo program. Manthey calls it the final stage of its Cayman-based race cars, as Cayman GT4s are eventually replaced by the 911 GT4 R. It costs $390,000.

Both cars wear white-and-red anniversary liveries inspired partly by Manthey's No. 911 entry at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The 911 adds a white-painted chassis as a nod to historic Porsche race cars, plus anniversary logos, numbered plaques, embroidered seats and larger wing endplates.

Manthey will accept orders through October 30, then allocate the 15 examples of each model. Caymans are built first, with deliveries starting in November 2026, and the first 911 GT3 Cup MR 30s are due in the first quarter of 2027.

Porsche, part of the Volkswagen Group alongside Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti, is the marque behind both cars. In our garage coverage we rank the Porsche Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid Coupé first among twenty-five luxury SUVs, a long way from a 4.2-liter Cup car.