Teamspeed First Drive: 2014 Porsche 911 GT3
The king is dead. Long live the king.
Words by CJ Hubbard

What is it?
The most focused Porsche you can currently buy.

Why should I care?
It’s a freaking Porsche 911 GT3 – if you don’t care you need therapy.

How fast and how much?
475hp @ 8,250rpm, 324lb ft @ 6,250rpm, 0-62mph 3.5 secs, V-Max 195mph, 7:25 Nürburgring lap time, MRSP $130,400

Ch-ch-ch-changes…

Andreas Preuninger, General Manager of Porsche GT cars, begins his presentation on the new 911 GT3 by relating a quote from Thomas Jefferson – yes, the third President of the United States – to the onset of puberty.

Jefferson informs us that “Every generation needs a revolution”, while the puberty part relates to the GT3 turning 14 this year: “Its new tubular manifold has made its voice deeper, the wider body has put on muscle, and it has even grown a little bit.” This probably tells you everything you need to know about the German’s sense of humor, but he is about to make a serious point here.

“It is, however, the attitude that may cause some incomprehension,” Preuningner continues, “because it seems to throw off common place assumptions surrounding the GT3 concept. It does not want to be shifted manually any more, seems to have a penchant for electronics and rids itself of the Mezger engine, which was so highly rated amongst its friends.”

And thus, the man in charge acknowledges every single one of the fears enthusiasts around the globe have not-so-secretly been harboring since the first details about the 991 GT3 began to appear.

“So do the parents need to worry?” he finally asks, somewhat rhetorically. “Of course not!”

He’s right.


To the very (forged, titanium) heart…

If this seems a strange way to start a review of the new 991-series GT3, imagine what it was like sitting in the press conference, listening to it. But as Preuninger went on to outline the stupendous technical specification of Porsche’s most focused new road car, so it is when we finally get behind the wheel and pull away into the German countryside; the flannel and the furor melt away into sheer insignificance when faced with the reality of the engineering brilliance and what it has actually achieved here.

We may as well start with the heart of the matter: the engine. The Mezger is gone, but it has not been forgotten. In a rare moment of sentimental indulgence, Porsche has deliberately manipulated the idle of the GT3’s all-new 3.8-litre flat-six to give it a reminiscent kind of lumpiness. This belies the fact that amongst all the other modifications, it’s now blessed with a 200-bar multi-hole direct injection system that boosts response (and efficiency) as well as top end power.

As the capacity suggests, the new unit is vaguely based on that fitted in the 991 Carrera S. Really, only the crankcase, the timing chains, the head bolts and a few of the ancillaries are carried over. In addition to the unique direct injection setup, the GT3 gets forged pistons, titanium connecting rods, revised oil handling compete with baffled dry sump and separate catch tank, enlarged intake and exhaust ports, and new rocker arm valve control. Obviously there’s also bespoke lightweight induction and a specially tuned Sports exhaust.

All of these upgrades are in the name of saving weight, adding strength and allowing the new engine to redline at a ridiculous 9,000rpm. For the record, that’s 500rpm higher than the last one; with 475hp at 8,250rpm, it’s also 40hp more powerful with a 10hp increase in the specific output per liter. Porsche is not messing around.


475hp, 9,000rpm – and PDK

Light this GT3 up, and it will snap 0-62mph in just 3.5 seconds – this is rear-wheel drive only, remember, and Porsche is usually conservative with the official figures. Foot-wide 305-section rear tires, a 1,430kg curb weight and the traction-adding rear-engined layout all help with this, so perhaps that raw speed isn’t surprising.

But what no raw data can possibly prepare you for is the noise it makes as it rips towards that 9,000rpm limiter – it’s like a turbine coming to some kind of organismic crescendo, or the sound you get just before a spaceship goes into warp at the movies, played through the best hifi you can possibly imagine. Then you pull the right-hand shift paddle, and it happens again.

You should also know that even with such top-end histrionics, the new engine is anything but highly strung. While its chunky 324lb ft of torque doesn’t peak until 6,250rpm, the GT3 is keen to get a move on from the moment it’s rolling, pulling hard and deep, and always on song – those low inertia internals build revs so exceptionally swiftly.

Given such rapacious appetite for velocity, you can see how the PDK begins to make sense – a regular manual would almost be a disservice under the circumstances; certainly it would slow down the GT3’s pursuit of cars like the 458 Italia. Preuninger explains it this way: “At Porsche we all love to shift gears manually, but what we love even more is being the fastest.”

Still, it’s a relief to note that we’re not dealing with any ordinary “Porsche Doppelkupplung” in this instance; instead it’s the amped-up adrenaline junkie of the family, the one that achieves top speed in top gear and packs closer ratios. It’s easy enough to say that shift times are down to just 100 milliseconds, but do you know what that means? The GT3 comes with Sport and Race Track transmission modes, and in the latter the up-changes are so fast it’s almost as if the car is prepared to break itself in the effort to please you.

Literally, it’s like an electric handclap – BAM – and you’re accelerating hard into the next gear. Porsche calls this a “lightning shift”, and the process is supercharged by a “torque overshoot” feature that hurls the engine into the new ratio. Down-changes are similarly dispensed with no pause and no mercy; you get exactly what you want at exactly the right time.


Techno, techno, techno, techno…

Even the paddleshifters have a 50% shorter action in the GT3, but if you do crave greater interaction you can always use the lever – which works superbly with Porsche’s ambitious but successful attempt to replicate the feel of a sequential racing transmission.

This combination of supersonic engine and whip-crack gearbox is utterly mesmerizing. If the manual transmission has got to die, this is surely the way it wants to go – vanquished to the point of irrelevance. But this wouldn’t be a GT3 without a chassis that also does extraordinary things to your nerve endings, and this car is in no mood to disappoint.

Preuninger wasn’t kidding about the electronics. In addition to the two-stage Porsche Active Suspension Management, the 991 GT3 gets electric power steering, second-generation dynamic engine mounts, torque vectoring plus, fully variable electronic differential lock and – shock! horror! – active rear-wheel steering. At a glance it looks like the Nissan GT-R rattled the firm more than it would like to admit; in practice this is a miracle of analogue feedback replication in a digital world.

There is, for starters, absolutely no way the steering should feel as good as this. It doesn’t just load on convincing cornering feedback, it floats and bobs and weaves with the road surface in an astonishingly authentic fashion, one you’d swear shouldn’t be possible with an electric motor attached. The math and the mainframe hours that must have gone into this alone boggles the brain – and that’s before you’ve even accounted for the back end’s behavior.


Steering from the rear

With electro-mechanical actuators instead of rear control arms, the angle of the rear wheels varies by up to 1.5 degrees – steering them in the opposite direction to the fronts in slower corners, and the same direction during faster ones. This doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but it allows the GT3 to combine the directional agility of a mongoose with improved high-speed stability.

Add the e-diff and the torque vectoring, and this car is a point-to-point monster. Given the space and repeatability of a racing circuit, we have no doubt it will perform remarkable feats of dynamic brutality. And scare everything up to and including the McLaren 12C.

Since we were stuck on the public roads, the ride quality bears a mention. In the standard setting the GT3 is so beautifully damped we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it for the daily commute; after approximately four hours of driving we didn’t want to get out. Switch to Sport when you want to go faster (and harder). The 991’s extended wheelbase is partially to thank for this athletic compliance, but the GT3 also gets obsessively lightened suspension components, including the 20-inch forged alloy center-lock wheels, which weigh less than the previous 19-inch items.

The wheels’ awesome open design also helps the brakes cool better – though if you upgrade to the carbon-ceramics we doubt fade will ever be an issue. These PCCBs are same spec as those fitted to the forthcoming 918 Spyder, and what they lack in initial pedal feel they more than make up with outrageous stopping ability. Not that the standard 380mm steels are probably lacking in this department; we just didn’t get to try them.

So sophisticated is the GT3’s chassis that you do get less of that classic 911, tire-smearing corner-exit wiggle as the balance transfer negotiates with the engine-weighted traction. But you can power-over to tip that balance or delve back into the toolbox to exploit the GT3’s final PDK trick. Grab and hold both paddles to activate the “paddle-neutral” function – which disengages the drivetrain like dipping the clutch. While Porsche puts it in fancier language, this essentially means big smoky burnouts and sideways shenanigans are yet to be relegated to the history books.


Coming of age

Bring all of this together as Porsche has done, throw in the fundamentally superb, Alcantara-clad, two-seater interior and the justifiably aggressive, aerodynamic optimization of the exterior, and you’ve got a car that is exactly what a cutting edge 911 GT3 should be. It is sensational.

Honestly, about the closest rival we can think of – in terms of super performance cars that still manage to make even the most limited experience feel spine-tinglingly special – is the Ferrari 458 Italia. That Porsche will sell you this car for about $100,000 less also makes it a surprising and remarkable bargain.

If this is the GT3 at 14, what’s it going to be like at 21?

 

Great review of an amazing car. Does anyone know the name of the color?

 

Rhodium Silver Metallic I believe

 

Nice write up. Looking forward to this car. I know a bunch of people are upset on the PDK thing, but 475 HP and PDK are faster than even the 4.0. Before the rocks get thrown, I'm aware there is more to it than that, but to win means faster times.

 

this color looks nice..
wish there is a comparison between the GT silver and rhodium silver.

can someone PS those rear light to the porsche option clear rear tail lights and with the head lights to black?

as i had ordered my GT3 with these 2 small options.

 

Great review and photos. A video would have topped it off nicely.

 

anyone else read orgasmic crescendo the first time?

 

Those seats looks good. The one's we don't get.

 

Great writ up, the comparing to the 458 is interesting!

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Thanks DJ!

Agreed. This is the best I could find:



Top left: Platinum Silver
Top right: GT Silver
Bottom left: Rhodium Silver
Bottom right: Classic Silver