Porsche Now Owns Two-Thirds of Manthey. The MR 30 Race Cars Show What That Buys

For thirty years, the fastest way to make a Porsche GT car quicker was to send it to a shop near the Nürburgring. In one October week, Porsche bought more of that shop, Manthey unveiled two anniversary race cars that show exactly how it does the work, and Manthey's DTM team closed the season with both championships. If you care about how Euro track cars get faster, this was the week to pay attention.

On October 8, Porsche AG announced it had raised its stake in Manthey Racing GmbH to 67 percent. The next day, at the DTM finale at Hockenheim, Manthey revealed the 911 GT3 Cup MR 30 and the 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport MR 30, 15 of each. Two days after that, Thomas Preining won the DTM drivers' title in a Manthey 911 GT3 R and the team took the teams' crown.

Why Porsche wants more of Manthey

Porsche framed the deal as part of its "Sportwagenschmiede '35" strategy. It is grouping its personalization businesses under a "Home of Sports Cars" umbrella with three lanes: Performance, which includes Manthey; Exclusiveness, covering Sonderwunsch and Exclusive Manufaktur; and Heritage. In the performance lane, Porsche said the plan with Manthey covers special models in a small off-segment, performance kits and exclusive track experiences.

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By increasing our stake, we are moving even closer to the brand.

The kits are the part street and track-day owners actually touch. According to Porsche, the two companies have developed nine joint Manthey Kits since 2020, for the 911, the 718 and most recently the Taycan Turbo GT with the Weissach package. Those kits are the factory-blessed version of tuning: aero, chassis and weight work developed with the manufacturer rather than around it.

Manthey's résumé explains why Porsche keeps leaning on it. Porsche lists seven overall wins at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, six class wins at Le Mans, several FIA WEC titles and DTM championships, built on founder Olaf Manthey's racing career. Brothers Nicolas and Martin Raeder run the company as joint managing directors. "It is the next step in our partnership," Martin Raeder said in Porsche's release.

The MR 30 cars, decoded

The two anniversary cars are race cars, not street cars, but they are a clean look at the Manthey method: carbon where it saves weight, cooling where the track punishes the car, and aero and geometry changes that only make sense if you have spent years at the Nordschleife.

The 911 GT3 Cup MR 30 starts from a thoroughly revised 992.1 GT3 Cup. Its liquid-cooled 4.2-liter flat-six makes 560 hp and drives the rear wheels through a six-speed sequential transmission. Porsche says a development version, with less power, lapped the 24.358-kilometer NLS configuration of the Nordschleife in 7:58.605.

The bodywork is where the weight comes out. Recycled carbon fiber reinforced plastic replaces the front section including fenders and hood, the rear bodywork, the wheel arch extensions, the rear lid and the wing. A centrally mounted radiator and much larger brake cooling intakes handle heat. Up front there is a splitter with an integrated underbody cover and extra aero elements; out back a new wing with bigger side plates and revised mounts. The track is 20 mm wider at the front and 50 mm wider at the rear, the forged wheels are made in-house at Manthey and save 3.8 kilograms, and the coilovers are six-way adjustable with revised front and rear kinematics.

The 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport MR 30 makes 500 hp and gets the same treatment in mid-engine form: carbon fenders with lightened headlight units, a carbon hood with an outlet for the central radiator, new carbon front and rear bumpers, a splitter, a rear lid with a lightweight window, a carbon wing and diffuser, and brake intakes derived from the 911 GT2 RS Clubsport EVO. Porsche puts the total weight saving at 5.7 kilograms over the base car, wheels included. A development version finished in the top 20 overall at the Nürburgring 24 Hours.

Manthey's Helmut Brakhage, director of its race cars division, described the Cayman as the peak of a mid-engine race car he helped develop for more than ten years, and the end of that model line, according to Porsche's release. Nicolas Raeder said both cars started from concrete customer and racing project requirements, and were built for the track rather than just to mark the anniversary.

Then it won the DTM

The timing could not have been better. At the Hockenheim finale on October 11, Preining finished third, giving second place to teammate Ricardo Feller on the last lap, and clinched his second DTM drivers' title after 2023. Manthey won the teams' championship with the 911 GT3 R, its third team title in four years, Porsche said.

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Our track record makes it clear that these successes are no fluke.

What it means for the kit buyer

Porsche did not announce new street kits alongside the stake. What it did say is that special models, performance kits and track experiences are the point of the closer relationship, and that Manthey now sits inside a formal Porsche structure next to Sonderwunsch and Exclusive Manufaktur. For owners of GT3s, GT4 RSs and the cars that follow them, that suggests the factory-backed performance kit will become a more central part of how Porsche sells speed, with Manthey's race department doing the engineering. The MR 30 cars are the clearest preview of that playbook: carbon, cooling, geometry and lap times first, badges second.