A Porsche for the purists

BORN IN FLACHT: THE CAR IS MADE IN THE GERMAN VILLAGE, THE HOME OF MOTORSPORT

You won’t find a more rewarding drive for R 2 750 000, or any other price for that matter.

Many manufacturers try and claim that they are building race cars for the road, but very few succeed. Unlike Porsche, who have managed to nail this feeling to the tar, so to speak, with their new 911 GT3, that is aptly said to be “born in Flacht”.

I will save you the trouble of Googling this fact, Flacht is the little village in Germany where Porsche develops and builds all their race cars from the ground up, in a state-of-the-art 12 000m2 facility.

And one thing you can’t deny, Porsche has many years of motorsport history to call on when it comes to making race cars go fast.

Some of the world’s most technically-sophisticated race cars, such as the 911 GT3 Cup, 911 RSR and 919 Hybrid cars are all born in Flacht.

From the initial sketch to the final lap on the dedicated test track, it all happens at Flacht.

They even have their own wind tunnel and test rigs to simulate performance under real-life conditions. Another important component is the driving simulator, where technical changes are simulated and immediately tested by their works drivers. There is even a separate area for pit stop training, where teams practise for the real thing and the battle for every hundredth of a second.

And this is why Flacht is also known as the home of motorsport, and the road-going 911 GT3 you can buy from your local Porsche dealership, and are about to read about, comes straight out of this facility.

So, just how good is the new 911 GT3?

From the outside you just know that this car means business, running on big 20-inch Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, massive brakes, air ducts in all the right places