On a personal level, I am offended (and I think I speak for all GT3s) at having been relegated to an addendum to Hallstrom's blow-out Turbo epic. Did R.H. get the breathing-assisted four-wheel-drive version on an appropriate track? Nuh-uh. He even tried one with the Tiptronic S bullshit box that some rich fat-asses in Japan, Saudi Arabia and even America sit around demanding.
I got the new GT3 onto the tight 1.68-mile circuit at Adria south of Venice, Italy, and blew its bolts out, kids. I am one of those GT3 suckers, yes. I'd give up all chick trolling any day for a chance to scream around a track in this FIA-ALMS darling. (And probably end up with more ladies, too.)
The 997 911 GT3 is a golden god. New and improved for both road and track, this GT3 comes with something that will immediately have all sexless chatroom heroes tossing off dumb comments like, "No way! I'm waiting for the RS, baby." First off, North America still will not get the RS.
The 997 GT3 comes with Porsche Active Suspension Management, or PASM. But hold the tomatoes! This version of PASM is totally new versus that used for the civilian Carrera and Carrera S. There are new uprights, top mounts and bushes, along with myriad re-programmings, to render it just as rigid in Sport mode as the previous GT3. Better, in fact. The basic damper design is that of the optional Sport shock from the 996 GT3. Plus, you can de-activate PASM and actually drive the freakin' thing every day without a bottle of Tylenol in the glovebox.
You get 409 bhp peaking at 7600 rpm and 298 lb-ft o' squirt all available at 5500 rpm in this version of the M96/79 3.6L. This is a license to keep the revs high up, and you can all day with the eager-to-be-touched 8400-rpm redline. And the new exhaust aids and abets. From zero to 60 mph, count just 4.2 seconds.
But a GT3 is just never about straight-line speed. It can crush your heart on Mulsanne, all the same, once properly transmogrified for such. But the GT3 reveals its race-winning ways in the technical sections where both sides of the brain are utilized. Thanks to PASM and the new dampers, plus 2.6 turns lock-to-lock, these tight bits are knocked off with practically no body sway at all and with a more consistent ride and aerodynamic road-sucking ability. The Cd is 0.29 despite greater downforce all around than on the last GT3.
Getrag supplies the brilliant and tough G96 six-speed manual box with even shorter shift throws than before. And wait until you try out the set of Michelin Cup UHP tires with the TCS (taken straight from the Carrera GT) switched off. Like fly paper stuck to glass. And buy the near-perfect $8,000 Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes from SGL. Just do it and shut up.
Poking the Sport button also gets you 11 more torques between 3000 and 4250 rpm, as well as 13 more horses, by bypassing the pre-silencers. Whoopee!
But I have to stop now, because Hallstrom took so much damned space for his precious Turbo. About 2,500 GT3s will be built; 750 of them are headed our way. Deliveries start in August and the starting price is a bargain basement $106,000.
Layout
Longitudinal rear engine, rear-wheel drive
Engine
3.6-liter flat six (M96/78), dohc, four valves per cylinder
Transmission
Six-speed manual
Performance
Peak Power: 409 bhp @ 7600 rpm
Peak Torque: 298 lb-ft @ 5500 rpm
0-60 mph: 4.2 sec.
Top Speed: 192 mph
Why We Love It:
Pure all-motor goodness,rear-wheel drive; a true track-day weapon and it's cheaper than the Turbo
Why We Don't:
Just 750 are coming to America; it's a pretty exclusive club