First Drive: Porsche 911 GT3 Touring

Porsche just launched its GT3 Touring derivative, which is a GT3 by name and application, minus the ginormous wing. Also, it may well be one of the most significant 911 GT3s to date. 

If you’re wondering what exactly the Touring is, it’s Porsche’s offering to buyers who want all the GT3-ness… but within something that’s a bit more… discreet. Instead of the permanently fixed rear wing, the GT3 Touring comes with an actively deployable rear spoiler which does downforce things before retracting when its services are no longer required. 

So, it’s still a full-fat GT3?

Pretty much, yes. There are some clues that speak to the GT3-like performance aptitude of this car, with a ‘GT3 Touring’ script atop the engine guard, the centre-lock wheels (20 inches at the front and 21 at the rear), and yellow carbon ceramic brake callipers that are visible through the forged alloy spokes. That’s it. 

Porsche has also gone to great lengths to restrain the styling while retaining the aero balance using said active spoiler, but also underbody fins, a teardrop-shaped double wishbone front suspension that’s kinder to passing air, and a reworked rear diffuser that soothes turbulent air passing beneath the car. 

And the engine? 

The rest of the workings remain gloriously unsubtle with the identical 4.0-litre boxer-6-cylinder normally aspirated engine you’d find in the standard GT3, producing 375kW and 450Nm with this engine enjoying the added benefit of having reworked cylinder heads and sharpened camshafts. 

While those are far from the most powerful numbers you’ll see on any respectable motoring website, the numbers are hardly the point. It’s what happens when you press down on the loud pedal. Past the 6,000r/min mark, it starts to produce a wail that I’ll liken to that of a banshee. 7,000r/min arrives and the pitch continues to build. At that point, there’s still more to squeeze out of the engine’s deployable range until it rewards with a 9,000r/min ceiling and peak power living at 8,400r/min and that… that’s very much the point. 

How does it feel to drive?

Click on the right paddle and the 7-speed PDK hands off power duties to the cog’s successor with a jolt. And the addictive ritual of soaking in what the 911 GT3 offers starts all over again. The speed blurs upwards. You reassess what you think you know, because how can a comparatively small engine elicit this much sensation, this much emotion, this much rawness…?  

The pedal is progressive as you instruct it to bite down on those discs. The signal that’s communicated through my ankle, through my calf muscles and ultimately to my cerebrum is repeatable, and the brakes are predictable in how they check forward momentum. There’s no searching for a bite point through the pedal’s range, just stopping force that’s relentless in its dependability. 

The steering too communicates exceptionally well. The road detail is accurately projected into your palms, and the weighting is perfect as you’d expect. Rotate into a corner, and the front end neatly tucks in without a whiff of drama. You don’t have to drive the GT3 Touring at eleven-tenths to appreciate the competence that’s baked into the chassis. Dialled into Sport mode, it works to keep body roll in check, and the throttle is responsive beyond belief, all while having a mental safety net over the even more extreme Track mode that balances it on a razor’s edge. Suppose the name is one clue… But don’t think ‘sport’ means ‘soft’… Not even Normal is all that easy-going. 

In that middle-ground Sport setting, the gear changes are still intense, shifting your head back into the lightweight sports seats. When the temptation overcomes you to get greedy out of a corner, it still allows a level of slip before the rears bite down into the tarmac. 

And the cabin space? 

The optional sports bucket seats pictured here are solely aimed at shaving off weight, with the entire backing structure made of carbon fibre reinforced plastic. This forms part of Porsche’s GT3 philosophy of creating a pure, unbloated driving experience. Rear seats are also not standard fare and can be specified as a no-cost option. The result of this obsession with weight is a kerb weight of 1,477kg. 

The engine is started using a twist-dial instead of a push-button, and the digital instrument cluster can be configured to show the 9,000r/min ceiling at the 12 o’clock position. For the most part, everything here is optimised for driver connection, while extracting milliseconds from the timer is an added bonus. 

If that’s not enough, Porsche allows further modifications of the cabin space with additional packages and individualisations, the most noteworthy of which is the Lightweight Package, which adds CFRP on the coupling rods and the rear axle’s shear panel, magnesium wheels, featherweight door panels and a shortened gear lever borrowed from the 911 S/T. 

Is it worth it? 

Well, it’s not exactly affordable with an entry price of R4,722,000, which is an identical price to that of the winged GT3. It can also be had in either Porsche’s 7-speed PDK or with a 6-speed manual shifter, which, again, is available at no additional cost. 

What makes it worthwhile, though, is that as it stands, this GT3 with this engine, in this tune, minus hybrid, turbos, and the lot, may well be one of the last of its kind, as it’s increasingly looking like it will get forced induction. This is great news for collectors, while the rest of us continue to weep that this may have been it. The swansong, the encore, the naturally aspirated 4.0-litre boxer-6. 

And that’s a shame, because this is one of the best performance cars, engineered to near-perfection, and in its current state, it’s as the driving gods intended.

*See the September edition of TopGear Magazine SA for the full feature.