Review and test Porsche 911 GT3 Touring

Whenever the words ‘dangerous’ and ‘hairpin’ are mentioned, we see the corners of rally legend Walter Röhrl move slightly upwards. A Porsche employee has the difficult task of urging drivers to adhere to the local speed limits, while Röhrl, now 74, argues like a rascal like ‘a bend is more fun when the rear breaks out’ and ‘oh well, you won’t be here tomorrow anyway’.

The rally hero is the only reason we can stay on our toes at all. The distraction is great: we are on a hill in the wine region half an hour from Trier. In front of us is the new Porsche 911 GT3 Touring and behind it a phenomenal asphalt buffet meanders down through the vast vineyards beside the Moselle River. A lecture by Sonja Bakker in Febo can count on more attention.

The location was not chosen because the best and most expensive wines in Germany come from this region. This is a historically significant place for Röhrl and the Porsche 911 GT3. In 2001 he helped set up the Rally of Germany here. Before the participating rally cars went over the test, he was allowed to scrub the first generation 911 GT3 (the 996) on the asphalt. He did this with such conviction that the organization asked him to slow down a bit, because he improved the times of the real rally cars (with a lower top speed). Check it out, you won’t be disappointed. Now, twenty years later, we can do parts of the same test with the latest GT3, but of course at a legally permitted pace.

What is the role of the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring?

It is also important to know that the 911 GT3 Touring (officially called GT3 with Touring Package) is not the latest long-range rocket from the brand, although the name suggests that. The opposite is true. The GT3 Touring is literally a GT3 without a rear wing. So it is exactly Porsche’s Spartan model of the moment. Technically, the cars are otherwise identical, so also in terms of chassis and engine.

Just a little less downforce

The wingless 911 gets an active rear spoiler that rises above a certain speed. According to Porsche, the lack of the fixed wing saves more than 100 kilos of downforce, but you will not notice anything below 100 km/h. The weight is almost the same and in terms of price it also saves change. The option for a PDK machine is free. The only big difference is that you can’t equip the GT3 Touring with a half roll cage. Oh, and the front bumper is fully sprayed on the Touring, on the winged GT3 there is still some black in the bumper.

The (optional) carbon fiber bucket seat is low in the car, so the poker is relatively high and you can just see the low nose of the car. It gives the feeling of a race car, but with a full interior. The lack of sound insulation (because of unnecessary weight) reinforces this feeling, because you can hear, for example, the mechanical parts of the box working; sounds that are no longer audible in normal new cars. The clutch pedal, on the other hand, behaves surprisingly friendly and is not an on/off button, as is often the case in real race cars. The brake pedal is very hard, just like a racer. Another benefit of omitting the soundproofing is that you’re front row seat to the divine howl of the 4.0-litre boxer engine.

The Porsche 911 GT3 Touring is not an understeer animal

We tackle the first hairpin bends with due caution. Unnecessary, it turns out. Porsche skilfully knocked understeer out of the dictionary thanks to the new GT3 front suspension. We also miss the feeling of a light nose that many Elves had in the past. The grip seems endless and as soon as the steering wheel is straight again, the bike fires you at the next bend. The six-cylinder engine is a bundle of perfectly manageable aggression and conflict-avoiding behavior as a driver is impossible. The direct response, the sound and the power that is released are addictive. You buy this 911 for the boxer engine – the rest is a nice bonus.

Oversteer is definitely on the menu if you’d like, but the systems keep the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring neatly in line. Even Röhrl (once called a ‘genius on wheels’ by Niki Lauda) says to leave the systems on the new GT3 on public roads because they ‘don’t slow it down’ and because ‘oncoming traffic never appreciates he comes out of the bend oversteering’.

Bad asphalt is not a problem

Even on stretches where the lousy tarmac wants to throw the 911 off the road, the GT3 also keeps up the pace neatly on the line it’s instructed – although the occupants are quite shaken up. The road surface can be felt one on one through the steering wheel, but even more so through the chassis. It has two settings: hard and a little harder.

As a result, the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring has all the potential to shake the brain to an even mush, but thanks to the surprisingly comfortable bucket seats, it is possible to spend a lot of time in the Touring without experiencing back problems or gray matter.

Do you want to use the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring on a daily basis?

Is the new 911 GT3 Touring the dream one after all daily driver or long-distance machine without compromise? Not quite. On the highway there is a lot of road noise, the engine is always audible and it lacks the seventh gear that other manual Elves have. The cup holder is right in front of the gear lever and is therefore unusable while driving and the sound system is obviously a bit disappointing.

These are all peripheral matters that you forget within a millisecond as soon as you downshift and the engine flames up to 9,000 rpm with a primal scream. It is without a doubt one of the most exciting cars of the moment, but the condition is that there are enough exciting roads nearby to use it for what it is intended.

Another nice detail: GT3s are always particularly valuable. If the Porsche 911 in your hands sees more of the A9 at Haarlem than hairpin bends, then you could still consider the 911 GTS. This one is cheaper and about as fast, but then you miss that phenomenal atmospheric 4.0-litre. This is especially an option if you’ve never experienced the GT3, because once you’ve experienced it, you probably won’t want anything else.

Weight obsession

The people behind the 911 GT3 are “a little special,” according to a Porsche spokesperson. And that’s exactly why the 911 GT3 is so good. Like Scarface, they snacked on grams wherever they could. For example, you can not order the GT3 with a rear seat or a panoramic roof, which weighs too much. In addition, there are lighter windows, a lighter exhaust and there is little sound insulation. It is no longer possible to omit the radio (as with previous generations), because you need it for the settings of the car. And look at the way the brake calipers are mounted – they hang down a bit in the rims to lower the center of gravity just that little bit. Why not all the way to the bottom of the rims? Then they would fill up with water – and besides, it wouldn’t look like it. So they did consider it at some point.