First Drive: Porsche 911 GT2
Jan 26, 2008 | 12:13 PM
#1
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 31,554
From: Zoo York
From Motive Mag
I'm at the Daytona International Speedway, riding shotgun in the 2008 Porsche 911 GT2. Not to drop names or anything, but to my left is my boyhood hero and five-time Daytona 24-hour winner, Hurley Haywood. We are high up on the bowl of Turn One, hard up against the wall, shearing the wind like a four-wheeled F-22. My head feels roughly twice its weight, and my stomach churns in regret of the pork sandwich I just ate. Hurley toes into the brakes, the seatbelt bites into my chest, and he slides the GT2 through the bus-stop chicane. He's back on the power - hard - through turns Three and Four, then pulls down and knifes into the infield. More minute steering corrections, more gs, more elastic power as he dances with the car through the road course section. I have a death grip on the door's grab handle, and Hurley is tapping the stubby shifter like a bongo. His hands are light on the wheel, and he is uncharacteristically silent. I think to myself, if this car were any more beastly, it'd be covered in hair.
This third-generation GT2 is the fastest, most powerful production 911 ever, with a twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter flat six that puts 530 hp and 505 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels. It does the 0-62 sprint in 3.7 seconds, charges onto a top speed of 204 mph, and laps the Nordschleife in 7:32, in range of a Carrera GT. Even though the GT2 is built on the main 911 assembly line at Stuttgart, the car was designed and engineered at Porsche's race shop in Weissach. The goal was to create a car that was as potent and usable on the track as a GT3 and as tractable and comfortable on the street as a 911 Turbo. The question for today is: Has Porsche succeeded in this mission, or has it simply added to the world's inventory of impressively capable death carts?
How it makes all that power
The GT2 gives 50 more horsepower than the stock 911 Turbo (and the same 505 lb-ft as the Turbo with the optional overboost function), without any bump in engine displacement. Like the 911 Turbo, the GT2 uses variable-vane turbochargers, an idea cribbed from diesel powerplants but applicable in these gasoline-powered engines because Porsche has developed a material mix to withstand the intense exhaust heat gas engines produce. Put on your dork glasses, because here's how it works: At high rpm, when there's inherently greater exhaust flow, the turbine blades are wide open, maintaining a constant intake charge pressure. At low rpm, the turbo's blades narrow, accelerating the gases flowing though them to spin the turbine quickly and eradicate turbo lag.
So why does the 911 Turbo feel laggy out of the boost? Its power comes on in bursts, and the car's weight and sound insulation add to its overall sense of remove. The GT2 adds a unique breathing apparatus as a curative. This new "expansion intake manifold" is so named not because it expands - it is shaped to optimize the expansion phase of the sinusoidal air oscillations in the manifold itself. (There are two phases: low-temperature expansion and high-temperature compression). The lower the temperature in the combustion chamber, the greater knock resistance it affords, enabling earlier ignition for more efficient combustion. The engine gets more power and uses less fuel (in this case, 15 percent less) due to the lower temperatures. Note that this only works in a turbocharged engine, since the system needs increased boost pressures to deal with the slightly reduced amount of air. In a conventional turbocharged engine, though, boosting pressure to the GT2's whopping 20.3 psi would result in some impressively erratic power delivery and possible guard-rail redecorating. Yet the GT2's engine pulls evenly from rest, serving up an exceptionally steaky, 2200- to 4500-rpm powerband. And even past that point, power keeps mounting exponentially, sickeningly. Throttle response is instantaneous, but the pedal is easy to modulate and sensitive to your right foot.
The engine exhales though a titanium exhaust system, marking the first time Porsche has used the material for a roadgoing car's mufflers and tailpipes. The exhaust weighs half as much as the stainless-steel unit in the 911 Turbo, improving weight distribution. It wails away Hendrix-like, harmonizing with the turbos' whine and the massive intake whoosh.
Power flows to the rears - apparently, AWD is for pussies - via a manual gearbox with as many cogs as the dry-sump engine has pots. The shift action is stiff, mechanical, and direct, as Porsche shortened the linkage from the 911 Turbo. The overall ratio is 15 percent shorter than on the 996 GT2, 22 percent shorter than on the Carrera, and the gearsets are interchangeable for different tracks. But I never found myself out of the powerband, and felt only tiny gaps between cogs: All I needed on the Daytona infield was third and a little fourth.
Looks right, feels right
From the front, the GT2 can be easily mistaken a 911 Turbo. If you look closely enough, you'll notice a vent up at the hood's leading edge to relieve air pressure at the nose, a one-inch-lower stance, and a little aerodynamic tweaking to the bumper and chin spoiler. This is a flat-bottomed car, and the boys in Weissach carefully managed aerodynamic downforce front and rear. It's only when you are following a GT2 (a predictably rare occurrence, since only 200 total are coming to North America), that you realize you're tailing no ordinary Turbo. Astride the tall uprights of the fixed, carbon-fiber rear wing sit forward-facing ram-air inlets, which are a nice nod to the original, 993-based GT2. There are also heat-dissipating vanes that wrap around the bottom edge of the bumper, presumably meant to strike fear into the hearts of Saturn drivers.
Inside, Porsche has installed fully adjustable racing buckets that offer great lateral support and saves 20 pounds each. In fact, the thin, carbon-fiber seat was probably the only thing keeping me from falling deeply into Hurley's personal space when we were up on Daytona's banking. Unlike the majority of racing buckets that barely accommodate such well-upholstered gents as myself, this seat would be comfortable for daily use. In another appeal to dash-strokers, Porsche has wrapped the steering wheel, seat inserts, and shift nub in Alcantara. And like the gauges in the Carerra GT, the GT2's have yellow needles and scales.
Slide Rules
The press kit says that the GT2 uses the 911 Turbo's front and rear suspension, but technical project manager Karsten Schebsdat told me that the axles and geometry are closer to the GT3's, with some modifications to deal with the 3175-lb GT2's extra 100 pounds and greater torque buildup. In front, spring rates are up 10 percent, the damper's top bushings are metal for faster vertical response, and the diameter of the hollow stabilizer bar is smaller. The car's front roll center is lower, as Weissach changed the outer pivot point on the wheel knuckle, moving the control arm and track-rod end down 10 millimeters to smooth turn-in and aid straight-line stability. At the same time, they raised the roll centers versus the GT3 on the rear, for quicker action out back.
The roll bars, camber, and Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) spring units are adjustable, but, other than changing camber settings to accommodate racing tires, I'm not sure why anyone would mess with the sweet, sweet setup that leaves the factory.
The car, with its dark and sumptuous interior, comes across as intimidating, careful in its movements, a killer. I leave the feeder lane at Daytona gingerly, resisting the urge to use Launch Control - Porsche's fancy term for dumping the clutch - to maximize pit speed. I kill stability control and keep traction control on, for fear that a spinning GT2 might suck the world into itself. Through the infield's series of tight, flat, and unwinding corners, the car's steering is talking to me, telling me how much to unfurl it. There are the usual comforts of a Porsche - the upright seating position from my old 356, the trembling helm, the mighty brakes. But there's also something more, a familiarity that extends past the well-known Porsche tactility. Engage the very firm clutch and the take-up point is exactly where you'd expect it to be. The shift points suggest themselves intuitively. The brake pedal can somehow judge distance. Even the seats feel perfectly tuned to the suspension. Approached carefully, in measured increments, the GT2 won't sneak up on you - there is no unexpected lightness under hard cornering or braking. It won't wallow or pitch, and the ride motions on the bumpy sections of the bowl don't hustle the car off line, even at speeds approaching 200 mph.
For the helium-footed, the GT2 will drift neutrally through corners. If you want to swing it wide, just stick your foot in and trim out the oversteer with a bit of the ol' opposite lock. The car stays level and flat while the g loads in the tires telegraph a corresponding positive force to your hands. Schebsdat said the race shop wanted to make sure that control feel was natural and unmediated. "We wanted it precisely linear," he said. "So when your steering wheel is 5 degrees off center and you have .1g of force, you should move it to 10 percent and get .2g - not .21, not .19." It's some kind of miracle that this fastest, quickest, most outlandish-looking 911 should be such a fine conversationalist, but it is.
It feels planted in a way the GT3 does not, and light on its feet in a way that the Turbo rarely does. Even though this car weighs 100 pounds more than the GT3, it's a full 400 pounds lighter than the Tiptronic-equipped Turbo, a car that is nonetheless as quick to 62 mph. (The GT2 leaves it behind in the upper reaches of the speedo, hauling up to 125 mph a full second than the Turbo Tip, and delivering 11 mph more on the top end.) Porsche shaved weight wherever it could, from the aforementioned titanium exhaust to the seats to the alloy doors and hood to the massive carbon ceramic brakes, which trim 10 pounds off each corner.
Conclusion
This car is meant to marry the directness of the GT3 to the relentless urge of the Turbo, and, y'know, mission accomplished and all that. But this car feels better resolved, more fine-tuned than its fellow extreme 997s - the GT3 is ferociously nimble but may be too high-strung for some, and the Turbo's power can come out of nowhere and punch you in the face. All three are excellent machines, but if I didn't have my crushing gambling debts, I'd take the way pricier $191,700 GT2. It combines the best of both into something alchemical. It's one of the most piquant cars Porsche has ever produced, and sitting there riding along the high banks of Daytona, looking over at the master, I could tell he was enjoying himself, too.
I'm at the Daytona International Speedway, riding shotgun in the 2008 Porsche 911 GT2. Not to drop names or anything, but to my left is my boyhood hero and five-time Daytona 24-hour winner, Hurley Haywood. We are high up on the bowl of Turn One, hard up against the wall, shearing the wind like a four-wheeled F-22. My head feels roughly twice its weight, and my stomach churns in regret of the pork sandwich I just ate. Hurley toes into the brakes, the seatbelt bites into my chest, and he slides the GT2 through the bus-stop chicane. He's back on the power - hard - through turns Three and Four, then pulls down and knifes into the infield. More minute steering corrections, more gs, more elastic power as he dances with the car through the road course section. I have a death grip on the door's grab handle, and Hurley is tapping the stubby shifter like a bongo. His hands are light on the wheel, and he is uncharacteristically silent. I think to myself, if this car were any more beastly, it'd be covered in hair.
This third-generation GT2 is the fastest, most powerful production 911 ever, with a twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter flat six that puts 530 hp and 505 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels. It does the 0-62 sprint in 3.7 seconds, charges onto a top speed of 204 mph, and laps the Nordschleife in 7:32, in range of a Carrera GT. Even though the GT2 is built on the main 911 assembly line at Stuttgart, the car was designed and engineered at Porsche's race shop in Weissach. The goal was to create a car that was as potent and usable on the track as a GT3 and as tractable and comfortable on the street as a 911 Turbo. The question for today is: Has Porsche succeeded in this mission, or has it simply added to the world's inventory of impressively capable death carts?
How it makes all that power
The GT2 gives 50 more horsepower than the stock 911 Turbo (and the same 505 lb-ft as the Turbo with the optional overboost function), without any bump in engine displacement. Like the 911 Turbo, the GT2 uses variable-vane turbochargers, an idea cribbed from diesel powerplants but applicable in these gasoline-powered engines because Porsche has developed a material mix to withstand the intense exhaust heat gas engines produce. Put on your dork glasses, because here's how it works: At high rpm, when there's inherently greater exhaust flow, the turbine blades are wide open, maintaining a constant intake charge pressure. At low rpm, the turbo's blades narrow, accelerating the gases flowing though them to spin the turbine quickly and eradicate turbo lag.
So why does the 911 Turbo feel laggy out of the boost? Its power comes on in bursts, and the car's weight and sound insulation add to its overall sense of remove. The GT2 adds a unique breathing apparatus as a curative. This new "expansion intake manifold" is so named not because it expands - it is shaped to optimize the expansion phase of the sinusoidal air oscillations in the manifold itself. (There are two phases: low-temperature expansion and high-temperature compression). The lower the temperature in the combustion chamber, the greater knock resistance it affords, enabling earlier ignition for more efficient combustion. The engine gets more power and uses less fuel (in this case, 15 percent less) due to the lower temperatures. Note that this only works in a turbocharged engine, since the system needs increased boost pressures to deal with the slightly reduced amount of air. In a conventional turbocharged engine, though, boosting pressure to the GT2's whopping 20.3 psi would result in some impressively erratic power delivery and possible guard-rail redecorating. Yet the GT2's engine pulls evenly from rest, serving up an exceptionally steaky, 2200- to 4500-rpm powerband. And even past that point, power keeps mounting exponentially, sickeningly. Throttle response is instantaneous, but the pedal is easy to modulate and sensitive to your right foot.
The engine exhales though a titanium exhaust system, marking the first time Porsche has used the material for a roadgoing car's mufflers and tailpipes. The exhaust weighs half as much as the stainless-steel unit in the 911 Turbo, improving weight distribution. It wails away Hendrix-like, harmonizing with the turbos' whine and the massive intake whoosh.
Power flows to the rears - apparently, AWD is for pussies - via a manual gearbox with as many cogs as the dry-sump engine has pots. The shift action is stiff, mechanical, and direct, as Porsche shortened the linkage from the 911 Turbo. The overall ratio is 15 percent shorter than on the 996 GT2, 22 percent shorter than on the Carrera, and the gearsets are interchangeable for different tracks. But I never found myself out of the powerband, and felt only tiny gaps between cogs: All I needed on the Daytona infield was third and a little fourth.
Looks right, feels right
From the front, the GT2 can be easily mistaken a 911 Turbo. If you look closely enough, you'll notice a vent up at the hood's leading edge to relieve air pressure at the nose, a one-inch-lower stance, and a little aerodynamic tweaking to the bumper and chin spoiler. This is a flat-bottomed car, and the boys in Weissach carefully managed aerodynamic downforce front and rear. It's only when you are following a GT2 (a predictably rare occurrence, since only 200 total are coming to North America), that you realize you're tailing no ordinary Turbo. Astride the tall uprights of the fixed, carbon-fiber rear wing sit forward-facing ram-air inlets, which are a nice nod to the original, 993-based GT2. There are also heat-dissipating vanes that wrap around the bottom edge of the bumper, presumably meant to strike fear into the hearts of Saturn drivers.
Inside, Porsche has installed fully adjustable racing buckets that offer great lateral support and saves 20 pounds each. In fact, the thin, carbon-fiber seat was probably the only thing keeping me from falling deeply into Hurley's personal space when we were up on Daytona's banking. Unlike the majority of racing buckets that barely accommodate such well-upholstered gents as myself, this seat would be comfortable for daily use. In another appeal to dash-strokers, Porsche has wrapped the steering wheel, seat inserts, and shift nub in Alcantara. And like the gauges in the Carerra GT, the GT2's have yellow needles and scales.
Slide Rules
The press kit says that the GT2 uses the 911 Turbo's front and rear suspension, but technical project manager Karsten Schebsdat told me that the axles and geometry are closer to the GT3's, with some modifications to deal with the 3175-lb GT2's extra 100 pounds and greater torque buildup. In front, spring rates are up 10 percent, the damper's top bushings are metal for faster vertical response, and the diameter of the hollow stabilizer bar is smaller. The car's front roll center is lower, as Weissach changed the outer pivot point on the wheel knuckle, moving the control arm and track-rod end down 10 millimeters to smooth turn-in and aid straight-line stability. At the same time, they raised the roll centers versus the GT3 on the rear, for quicker action out back.
The roll bars, camber, and Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) spring units are adjustable, but, other than changing camber settings to accommodate racing tires, I'm not sure why anyone would mess with the sweet, sweet setup that leaves the factory.
The car, with its dark and sumptuous interior, comes across as intimidating, careful in its movements, a killer. I leave the feeder lane at Daytona gingerly, resisting the urge to use Launch Control - Porsche's fancy term for dumping the clutch - to maximize pit speed. I kill stability control and keep traction control on, for fear that a spinning GT2 might suck the world into itself. Through the infield's series of tight, flat, and unwinding corners, the car's steering is talking to me, telling me how much to unfurl it. There are the usual comforts of a Porsche - the upright seating position from my old 356, the trembling helm, the mighty brakes. But there's also something more, a familiarity that extends past the well-known Porsche tactility. Engage the very firm clutch and the take-up point is exactly where you'd expect it to be. The shift points suggest themselves intuitively. The brake pedal can somehow judge distance. Even the seats feel perfectly tuned to the suspension. Approached carefully, in measured increments, the GT2 won't sneak up on you - there is no unexpected lightness under hard cornering or braking. It won't wallow or pitch, and the ride motions on the bumpy sections of the bowl don't hustle the car off line, even at speeds approaching 200 mph.
For the helium-footed, the GT2 will drift neutrally through corners. If you want to swing it wide, just stick your foot in and trim out the oversteer with a bit of the ol' opposite lock. The car stays level and flat while the g loads in the tires telegraph a corresponding positive force to your hands. Schebsdat said the race shop wanted to make sure that control feel was natural and unmediated. "We wanted it precisely linear," he said. "So when your steering wheel is 5 degrees off center and you have .1g of force, you should move it to 10 percent and get .2g - not .21, not .19." It's some kind of miracle that this fastest, quickest, most outlandish-looking 911 should be such a fine conversationalist, but it is.
It feels planted in a way the GT3 does not, and light on its feet in a way that the Turbo rarely does. Even though this car weighs 100 pounds more than the GT3, it's a full 400 pounds lighter than the Tiptronic-equipped Turbo, a car that is nonetheless as quick to 62 mph. (The GT2 leaves it behind in the upper reaches of the speedo, hauling up to 125 mph a full second than the Turbo Tip, and delivering 11 mph more on the top end.) Porsche shaved weight wherever it could, from the aforementioned titanium exhaust to the seats to the alloy doors and hood to the massive carbon ceramic brakes, which trim 10 pounds off each corner.
Conclusion
This car is meant to marry the directness of the GT3 to the relentless urge of the Turbo, and, y'know, mission accomplished and all that. But this car feels better resolved, more fine-tuned than its fellow extreme 997s - the GT3 is ferociously nimble but may be too high-strung for some, and the Turbo's power can come out of nowhere and punch you in the face. All three are excellent machines, but if I didn't have my crushing gambling debts, I'd take the way pricier $191,700 GT2. It combines the best of both into something alchemical. It's one of the most piquant cars Porsche has ever produced, and sitting there riding along the high banks of Daytona, looking over at the master, I could tell he was enjoying himself, too.
to all that are waiters and soon to be pilots. 
Jan 31, 2008 | 02:02 AM
#8
Teamspeed Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 58
From: Pacific Northwest
D.J.
Awesome write up. Thanks for sharing.
I have a random question:
From the pictures, it looks as if the steering wheel may be a bit thicker that our standard GT3- GT3RS alcantara wheels. Can you or anybody confirm or deny this?
Cheers,
Awesome write up. Thanks for sharing.
I have a random question:
From the pictures, it looks as if the steering wheel may be a bit thicker that our standard GT3- GT3RS alcantara wheels. Can you or anybody confirm or deny this?
Cheers,
Jan 31, 2008 | 02:04 AM
#9
Teamspeed Pro
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 2,235
From: LI, NY
Looks like the optional sport/thicker steering wheel just in Alcantara.
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