FIRST DRIVES
A new GT3 is always a big deal, and the 992 generation feels quite a different sort of animal to its forebears. But is it better?
This month: Porsche’s new 911 GT3, Peugeot’s 508 SW PSE, Alpina’s D3 S Touring, VW’S Golf R Performance Pack, and one more Porsche: a Boxster GTS with PDK
BEFORE YOU GET IN, JUST KNEEL DOWN in front of the car and put a temple on the tarmac. Pretend you’ve just dropped a wheel nut and you want to see how far it has rolled under the car. What you’ll find is a mostly flat undertray, but around the front wheels there are also small spinneys of angular, aggressive aero vanes that wouldn’t look out of place protruding from part of an F1 car. It gives you a sense of just how serious this new GT3 is.
As you stand up and brush the small bits of gravel from your knees, the huge, swan-neck wing and pugnacious nostrils will come back into view. On reflection, perhaps you didn’t need to hit the deck to see how serious this car is. Sorry. At least it wasn’t wet. Capable of generating 231kg of downforce with the wing and front diffusers in their standard settings, this latest GT3 has 50 per cent more downforce than the old 991.2 GT3. However, if you break out the toolbox and add some more angle then the new car will produce 385kg of downforce at 124mph. That’s 150 per cent more than the old car, which is impressive. But more extraordinary still is that it’s also comprehensively more than the old RS, which only doubled the old GT3’S downforce at the same speed.
But you don’t need to be doing a three-figure speed to feel some of the changes with this GT3. Pull the curious little flush-fitting door handle, get in and you’ll find you’re sitting appreciably lower. Admittedly this Shark Blue example
has the optional carbon buckets (I’d highly recommend them) but, even so, there really is a sense that you’re more hunkered down in the 992. Given the aggressive ambience of much of the GT3, though, it would be nice to have an option for ‘screen delete’ to get rid of the wide central touchscreen. It just seems a bit incongruous, particularly if you’ve got the Club Sport option with a half-cage behind you. Of course you can just turn it off, and there is a new Track Screen option for the digital dash, which neatly reduces and simplifies the information it shows in order to minimise distractions.
Twist the ignition switch and the flat-six comes to life with a familiar but very welcome sound. There are now individual throttle bodies and gas particulate filters mated to a 10kg-lighter stainless steel exhaust, but it is fundamentally the same naturally aspirated, 4-litre engine that was in the old car, albeit with an extra 10bhp, taking the total to 503bhp And, as I do my first few exploratory laps around Bedford Autodrome’s
West Circuit, getting heat into the tyres and fluids, it’s good to hear that the boxer has the same, glorious voice. Deep and grumbly at first, then slightly higher, with a hollow, melancholy pitch that builds in anger before it all comes together for the yowling 9000rpm flourish.
At which point you’ll being seeing the new shift-lights flashing blue in your peripheral vision and pulling the right-hand paddle for another gear. Or, uniquely in a 992, pushing the gear selector across to M and pulling it back to change up. It never feels quite as good in a right-hand drive car because the lever is leaning away from the driver, but nonetheless it’s nice to have the option and the actual action feels satisfying.
The shifts feel superbly swift, too. It shouldn’t be a surprise, because this is the same sevenspeed PDK ’box that was used in the previous GT3 rather than the heavier eight-speed from other 992s, but the smoothness and alacrity of the changes is still something to marvel at. As the pace starts to increase and I load up the car through the long Palmer Curves (the man himself having just buzzed low over the circuit in his helicopter), it’s reassuring to know you can call on a high-revs upshift without any qualms about it unsettling the car. No torque interruption, not even a mild jolt, just a change in tone as the revs drop. Which leaves you to concentrate on the messages coming from the rest of the car, particularly the front end…
As visually impactful and performanceimproving as the new aerodynamic aids are, it is what’s hidden in the front arches that has really
‘It’s good to hear that the 4-litre boxer has the same, glorious voice’
got people talking with this new GT3. Gone are the Macpherson struts, because for the first time in its 58-year history, this is a 911 road car with double-wishbone front suspension. The layout has appeared on the RSR before, so its worth has been proven on the racetrack and, as if to cement that competition relationship further, all the connections in the front suspension are ball joints.
You can feel that there is something different as soon as you set off. The steering is quite light and lacking a bit of resistance as you move away, but there is also a sense that there is plenty of wheel travel. A quick, exploratory slalom exercise as though you’re trying to warm the tyres reveals a startling speed of response and extraordinary amounts of grip. The way it digs into the tarmac and turns is quite shocking because it’s not just the first few degrees as the tyre bites, the grip really seems to build as you lean harder on the outside tyre. It certainly seems more sustained than I expected.
Given the extra precision and aggression, it feels entirely appropriate to put the PASM into its firmer damper setting, and there is a very noticeable toughening when you do this. Bedford isn’t the bumpiest track, but even so there are a couple of occasions when you feel a bit of patter, a little stiff skip, and I wonder if I should switch back to the softer mode. I don’t, partly because I quite like the feel of the car moving around, but there are certainly some racetracks where I think it would be beneficial.
After a few laps, it dawns on me how confidence-inspiring the car is. For all the extra speed that it clearly generates in the corners (in a straight line it’s no faster than before, the 0-62mph time remaining at 3.4sec with PDK, 3.9 with the manual ’box, and top speed up just 1mph to 198mph PDK, 199mph manual), there is also a stability and sense of connection that puts you at ease. You can place it just where you want and the lack of slack means you are never left in any doubt about how the car is behaving.
Left and above: new GT3 grips tenaciously – it takes aggression and commitment to get it sliding and hold it sideways, as Catchpole is more than happy to confirm
Heading down into the first, tight hairpin, you can wait impossibly late before you hit the brakes. Push deep into the pedal’s travel; you’ll note that there is surprisingly little dive and that you can really use the ABS, letting it pulse under your foot as you extract the maximum from the tyres. I’ve never been the last of the late brakers, but this really gives you reassurance and therefore confidence to eke out the margins at the end of straights like this.
There’s more immediate response as you turn into the hairpin and, although you can feel the front end wanting to push like a 911, there is also more grip to lean into. Just at the point where you expect a 911’s nose to start slipping wide, it seems to cling on and give more options, making it easier to manage the mid-corner balance.
Lots of room on the exit, so you can run the car out wide onto the red and white. There is huge traction but also the option for oversteer. The Michelin Cup 2s are remarkably progressive, but it nonetheless feels like you have to be more aggressive if you want to slide. The rear claws for grip and only a concerted amount of throttle
will unstick the big, 315-section tyres. A decent amount of angle helps, and once it’s oversteering you need to keep piling on the power and really drive through the slide if you want to keep things smooth. It’s a trait I love about 911 GT cars, that sense that they are gripping even when they’re slipping; it means you really feel in control over the limit, able to adjust. But this feels more tenacious than ever. Even the slightest hesitation will see the 992 try to straighten up.
Porsche offers the option to fit super-sticky Cup 2 R tyres (on which it set its Nordschleife lap time) and although that might sound like overkill for a non-rs GT3, such is this car’s ability that I think it would take them in its stride. Other options adding to the £127,820 base price on this particular car include a carbonfibre roof, which saves 1kg compared to the standard item and will set you back £2517. There are also carbonfibre mirror caps, which seem rather expensive by comparison, coming in at £1052. As you can tell by the yellow calipers, Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes (PCCB) are fitted, saving 17.7kg compared with the standard cast-iron items, but also lightening your bank account to the tune of £6498. A front axle lift is £2214, the wheels in satin black with the blue pinstripe are £1263 and this car has the matching dynamic LED headlights with black surrounds and blue accent rings, which add on a further £812. All in, this extensively specced car comes to a smidgen over £150,000, which is still less than the standard price of a Lamborghini Huracán Evo RWD and not far off half what you’d pay for a base Mclaren 765LT.
Although the GT3 feels as though it could carry on lapping the West Circuit all day long, stopping only for fuel and probably a change of worn-out driver, the chequered flag eventually comes down on my time. Happily, as the yowling recedes and I come back into the pits, I can keep driving. Out past the storage hangars, through the car park, along the access road and on to the public highway.
My time in the car on the road is brief and, as such, the star rating at the end of this review is really based on the track impressions. However, even 45 minutes out in the wild is fascinating. The road surfaces in this part of the world are far from even and the car is constantly busy over the turbulent tarmac. Initially at slower speeds the steering doesn’t feel like it’s got quite the textural feedback that I remember from the old car, certainly around the straight-ahead, but your hands are always moving as the tyres track the surface in a way that feels quite different. That new front end is constantly following
‘Grip really seems to build as you lean harder on the outside tyre’
cambers and reacting to bumps. It feels alive and lively. You can tell there is a good amount of travel, so the impacts aren’t harsh but, nonetheless, the car also feels much stiffer in terms of its ride. Less settled. More RS.
One of the deeply impressive things about the previous 991.2 generation GT3 was that you never really noticed the suspension. It simply dealt with everything and felt unruffled. In the new car I found myself trying to read the road more and even avoid bigger bumps. It sometimes felt like a larger car, too, even though the dimensions aren’t vastly bigger and it’s a scant 5kg heavier. On smoother stretches it was definitely much happier, and when you do push a bit harder, lean into the suspension a bit more, then you get the lovely feedback through the Alcantara letting you
Left, from top: new GT3 feels right at home on track; wing can be angled for extra downforce; carbon bucket seats and PCCB brakes extra; ‘Track Screen’ selected know exactly how hard the tyres are trying.
We will definitely have to spend a lot more time in a new GT3 on a greater variety of roads to make a definitive decision about its road manners, but my first impression is that this is a car that you take out for an exhilarating blast at the weekend or drive to a trackday. Exciting but not entirely at ease on every road. And that’s fine. In fact, perhaps that’s what a GT3 should be? But in recent iterations we’ve got used to them being so useable that you would happily drive one every day, and this car felt like it would take a lot more commitment to do that.
Maybe the Touring version will be a more distinct, road-biased GT3 this time around? It certainly feels as though there is room to dial back the outright performance of the suspension and make it a bit more compliant. How the car will feel with a manual gearbox is another thing to ponder. It might be because I did most of my driving on track, but it feels like this 992 might be more suited to PDK. And perhaps the biggest question of all is how an RS variant can be even faster and more focused than this already supremely impressive standard GT3? The mind boggles!
Quite a few unanswered questions then. But I know I’m more glad than ever that Porsche hasn’t gone chasing horsepower but instead stuck to its naturally aspirated guns. And when someone asked me if, with the engine and gearbox being so familiar, this latest GT3 felt more like a 991.3 than a brand new car, I was unequivocally able to answer that this is no mere development. This feels like a distinctly fresh chapter of the GT3 story.
Engine Flat-six, 3996cc Power 503bhp @ 8400rpm
Torque 347lb ft @ 6100rpm Weight 1418kg (360bhp/ton) 0-62mph 3.9sec (3.4sec with PDK) Top speed 199mph Basic price £127,820 + Brilliant on track, drivetrain as glorious as ever - Maybe a little too track-focused? evo rating
‘i’m more glad than ever that Porsche hasn’t gone chasing horsepower’