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The new 911 GT3 is almost exactly the same as the old one | Thank Frankel it’s Friday

31st January 2025
andrew_frankel_headshot.jpg Andrew Frankel

The first reviews of the new Porsche 911 GT3 are in. I was at a funeral the day of the launch so was unable to attend, but just looking at its description and having spoken to a few who were there and drove it on both road and track, it is clear there is something quite remarkable about it, namely just how similar it is to its predecessor. 

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In fact it seems almost the same. It has the same engine with the same 510PS (375kW) – the first time in the 26-year history of the GT3 that power has not risen from one generation to the next. Its performance is unchanged, so is its gearbox. Its suspension has had the mildest of tweaks but the aerodynamic package is, again, unchanged.

So what’s different? The engine actually has a little less torque than before and the weight of the whole car has risen by 20kg. The suspension has shorter bump stops to allow few additional mils of wheel travel for those moments when you hit the sausage kerb at maximum attack and some different damper software. The final drive ratio has been reduced by eight per cent to help cover the torque shortfall and some of the visual changes visited upon all second generation models of the current 992 series – such as the new, all-electronic dashboard are carried over too. And...

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Well if you choose the Touring version it can be specified with rear seats, the first time in GT3 history you’ve been able to buy one with more than two. Now, as with all 911s of all ages, these seats will be of very limited use for human beings but they’ll be brilliant at convincing prospective purchasers’ sceptical other halves that this car is not quite the utterly impractical toy in might at first appear.

But my point here is not to attempt to review a car I’ve not so much as sat in – I’ll leave that to others – but to suggest why Porsche has decided to offer a car seemingly so similar to the one it is intended to replace. And, no, I don’t think it’s complacency born from the knowledge they’ll sell every one they make, so who cares?

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I think two things are going on here. First, I know that trying to get through the latest emissions standards of various governments and blocs right around the world is a hard enough task for any engine. It’s why so many are being downsized, turbocharged and fitted with hybrids. But to do it with a naturally-aspirated 4.0-litre flat six engine taken straight from a racing car? That is a challenge of altogether scarier proportion. Porsche has been forced to fit additional catalytic converters and then fit the camshafts from the GT3 RS, simply to offset the losses and end up exactly where it started. And the weight gain comes from these cats and various structural modifications also mandated by legislation.

But there’s something else too. If you were to look at a shark today and one born 300 million years ago, you’d see the same thing going on: it will have hardly changed, as if it had opted out of the evolutionary forces that constantly meld and modify the rest of us. And the generally accepted reason is that it’s reached the point where it’s about as good, as hydrodynamically efficient, as it’s ever going to be. As close to a perfectly adapted organism as has ever existed. 

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And I think the GT3 is probably about there too. These cars have never been about power, so there’s no point adding more, they’ve always been about the purity of the driving experience and with every additional round of legislation making achieving that ever more difficult, Porsche now finds itself with a car as good at the job it is intended to do as it can possibly be.

So don’t lament the fact the GT3 is very little changed, celebrate it. Because had Porsche not tried so hard to keep it the same it would have become slower, even heavier and, crucially, less fun to drive.

Even so, a fresh challenge awaits, because in four to five years’ time, Porsche will need to create another GT3, based on what will be presumably an all new 911 platform and the environment into which it will be born won’t be any easier. In fact, it is certain to be a great deal tougher. It will be fascinating to see what Porsche makes of it. For now, however, give thanks for the small mercy of a new GT3 that is almost unchanged from the last.

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