Porsche 992 GT3 Touring 6-Speed: The Undercover Racecar
Look ma, no wing! The 992 GT3 Touring is the perfect car for the racer at heart that wants to fly under the radar.
The Porsche 992 GT3 is one of the most engaging and visceral sports cars that you can buy today. Well, if you can somehow manage to get an allocation you can buy it. The car has a number of suspension bits lifted from the RSR racecar. The big wing on the back helps with downforce and thus plays a role in setting the quickest lap time possible. But what if you don’t like that giant, attention grabbing appendage at the back? Well, the 992 GT3 Touring is the answer. It is essentially the same racy 911 but with the large, fixed wing replaced by the retractable unit found on the lower rung 911 models. You may not go as quick around the track due to less downforce, but the rest of the car is the same and you will have a much more discreet look.
If you choose the 992 GT3 Touring you are already sacrificing ultimate lap times, so you may as well select the amazing 6-speed manual transmission as well. This is an option again for those in California.
Again, it will be a bit slower around a road course than the brilliant PDK, but who cares? The 6-speed ramps up the engagement another notch and you will be in full control of one of the best sports cars in the world. If you don’t won’t to take our word for it, Matt Farah recently reviewed the 992 GT3 Touring 6-speed on his The Smoking Tire YouTube channel. He came away breathless from excitement. “If I was shopping for new cars right now. I can’t possibly imagine wanting more car.” Says Farah.
Farah drives a lot of cars, so what would lead him to make a statement like that after only 18 hours with the car? First of all, the car looks fantastic. The Gentian Blue Metallic car with wheels painted in Satin Neodyme is a stunning combination. But, unlike many press cars this one is not loaded to the hilt with options.
Other than the wheels and paint, it has the full bucket seats, and that is about it. That is part of the beauty of this package, there is no need to go crazy loading up with options on a car like this. Leather sun visors are not going to add to the experience one bit.
When Farah gets on the road, the first thing you notice is the sound of that 4.0L naturally aspirated flat six. Such a jewel of an engine. Let’s pause for a moment and thank Porsche for still offering an engine like that paired to a 6-speed. Thank you. The downside here is that the GT3 has basically the same issue as the manual transmission 4.0-liter Boxster and Cayman cars.
That is the long gear ratios. However, the GT3 has more torque which helps mitigate some of the frustration of those ratios. That aside, it is the connection between the car, the road and the driver that makes the GT3 great. “The connection between my hands, and the front wheels and the road, is just ridiculous,” said Farah.
Does the GT3 Touring suffer due to the loss of the rear wing? Not according to Farah, “Even without the downforce it is not like this thing is loosey-goosey. The rear diffuser, the flat undertray, the power wing, those things all do work.” However, that power wing is not exactly graceful looking when it is deployed. But the fixed GT3 wing is not exactly graceful either, so take your pick.
No matter which 992 GT3 model you choose, you are getting a fairly large car. Porsche did a good job limiting weight gain from the previous generation. However, there is no disguising the fact that the 992 generation is simply a bit larger car. If that bothers you, then Porsche has a GT4 they will happily sell you, and you could put the $60,000 in saving towards track time.
So, which 992 GT3 would you choose? Would you opt for the GT3 Touring 6-speed that is shown here? Do you want the ultimate track weapon with the big wing, and PDK? Maybe you split the difference and go with the Touring model and PDK? There is no real losing proposition here.
It is like winning $100,000,000 in the lottery and trying to decide between a lump sum and an annuity payment. No matter what, you just hit the freaking lottery.
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