DREAM DRIVE
Days don’t get much better: collect a Porsche 911 GT3 from the Stuttgart factory, aim for the autobahn and the Austrian and Italian alps. Gulp!
The speedo is showing 250km/h, we’re on an autobahn, and a moment of surrealism hits. We’re in one of the world’s most popular cars, not just sports cars, we’re legally doing the high speeds it was designed for, and after two years of Covid lockdowns and drama, we’re back overseas; just mentally pausing for a moment of perspective, it’s all very unreal.
Boom! Snap back to reality, because we are in the dream car, on a dream trip on a dream drive. Having flown from the Goodwood Festival of Speed just a few hours earlier, we arrive at the home of Porsche, Zuffenhausen, a borough of Stuttgart.
At the factory, where it’s been since 1950, we meet in the customer lounge. Outside are a dozen various models ready for today’s collection. In the VIP parking is our special fleet of three Porsches, press cars identified by their SGO number plate prefixes.
There it is, a silver 911 GT3, voted by DRIVEN readers in 2021 as the best Porsche of all time in our Facebook shootout, in all its wings and centre-lock wheel nut and seven-speed PDK gearbox glory.
While travelling alone can be fun, our three-day adventure has two companions: a grey GT3 Touring, less the wings and with a six-speed manual, and equally fit for our purpose. It’s also hard to ignore the bright yellow Porsche
911 Turbo S, always eager to challenge GT3 as the star on top of the 911 tree. No EV motors, batteries or recharging, just engines, petrol and sound, like it was, and — for now — gratefully, still is.
We set off south, in convoy, to the autobahn under clear skies and 30 degree temps. The wings-n-all GT3 is clearly the alpha male of the group, its reputation as the ultimate driver’s car shaped and forged since 1999, but spiritually dating back to the original 1973 RS. Its normally aspirated 4.0-litre flat-six cylinder boxer engine is iconic as it is sonorous, and as the rev counter sweeps around to a high 9000rpm redline in third, fourth and fifth gears – we are on the autobahn, after all – it’s all punctuated by an enveloping, glorious sound. We probably won’t see its 317km/h top speed today, but it’s likely the only place we can give it a go. The carbon-backed seats invite and embrace, the thick steering wheel not only feels divine to touch, its input and feedback is what many others aspire to, and as that engine sweeps to 9000rpm with the throttle pinned and the dualclutch gearbox smoothly snapping through gears relentlessly until its top speed of 318km/h, the GT3 is more an occasion and event, than just a car. These are things noncar people look down their noses at you for, countered with the insider knowledge of the pure experience of joy.
From Germany, we enter Austria and its postcard scenery: tens of kilometres of rolling green hills, historic towns and mountain peaks in almost photo moment, and a strip of road that cuts between and beneath it all. We trek to what is known as Hahntennjoch Pass, around 30km of winding, challenging, scenic road; perfect stuff for three Porsches, along with all the other car and bike enthusiasts here for a life thrill.
It’s here where the GT3 comes alive, and the immense power and grip from the 20-inch Michelin tyres, while the famous Porsche ceramic brakes get a chance to prove their worth. We push on and find the GT3’s steering alive and full of feedback, changing weight and feel for the corners, and telegraphing that the limit is still way off what we’re doing today, remembering this is road, not track.
We take the opportunity to cycle through all three Porsches on the same road for the ultimate comparison. Into the GT3 Touring, it’s an unsurprisingly similar experience, but the manual gearbox opens up a different level of involvement. The simple pleasure of pick and choosing a gear can’t be underestimated, along with the satisfaction of a well-matched heel-toe downshift
blip . . . no electric motors, no regen braking, just the purity of man, machine, and the safety net of a few electronic anti-crash aids.
Of course, Porsche caters for the ’tweeners, too, with the rotary dial on the steering wheel enabling Sport mode, activating an auto downshift auto-blip, particularly handy when shuffling through turns and gears on full attack. I absolutely love the GT3 Touring, and it’s probably the one I’d choose, over the winged GT3. For the road, I don’t need the downforce, but the overtyred GT3 just looks meekly tough and squat sitting on its clean, muscled stance.
The bright yellow elephant in the room is the 911 Turbo S, and what a machine.
With so much power (478kW) and all-wheel drive, it’s an equally incredible side-step from the GT3, offering both daily usability, comfortable seats and quite incredible amounts of speed: from every corner, the GT3 pair howls through induction and exhaust, squirming as all the power channels through the rear wheels; while the Turbo S takes a big bad wolf breath to inhale its boost and explodes with — dare we say it — EV levels of relentless torque and acceleration that pushes your head into the headrest, despite anticipating it. It’s that quick: 0-100km/h in 2.7 seconds is just the taster, on the way to the top speed of 330km/h.
Overnight in Imst, we venture further south, across the Timmelsjoch Pass, 2.5km above sea level, which also takes us into Italy. Breathtaking scenery, amazing roads, we’ll let the pics do the talking as we get comfortable in our 911s.
But mid-day, fog rolls in like a disaster movie at the summit Hochalpenstrasse restaurant, and rain sets in, so we set off for another schnitzel and overnighter.
Our final day’s destination is Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Hohe, an incredible glacier with an equally awesome €38/NZ$60 toll road leading up to it; a mountain walk, panorama restaurant and small motoring museum are all at the road’s summit: today, it’s raining, supremely wet and slippery — so the aim is to simply enjoy, absorb and leave in one piece.
Pics and day done, we turn back to Stuttgart, and enjoy the Austrian and German roads, stunning scenery and the GT3, more a wind down transport day, though with one final 300km/h blast on the autobahn north of Munich. Six hours and 500km flies by.
We arrive back at the factory, park the cars, take one final loving look back at the 911 before returning the key, thinking quite possibly, this could be the last time for this once-in-a-lifetime adventure.
Our trip is done, and while it didn’t need to, the 911 GT3 cements itself as one of the alltime great sports cars.
Tomorrow is the Porsche museum and VIP tour of Porsche’s vault, and a drive in some very special cars.
But that’s a different story, to come. For the moment, we’re basking in 911 GT3.