I have owned my 2015 GT3 for one year now, so I thought it would be beneficial to some potential new buyers to see what I think of the car after owning and driving it that long.

Okay, a little background. My buddy Mal from Australia was pushing me pretty hard to get a GT3. He is a real car nut, so I took his advice and decided to buy one in late 2015. With his prodding, I looked and found the perfect spec for sale here on RL. His criteria was pretty simple. White, black wheels, and all the interior goodies you can get. I reached out to the seller (RL member Zzinger) who was in Virgina (I am in Colorado), and we immediately hit it off. I could tell just by talking to Ryan that he was good people, and that he had taken really good care of the car. It had a little over 2,600 miles on it. Here's the first picture I saw of it.



Needless to say it was love at first site. The car had pretty much everything (carbon fiber everywhere), and was exactly spec'd the way I (I mean Mal lol) would have done it. The price was fair (MSRP - Sharkwerks was free) so I pulled the trigger.

It took about 2 months to get the car here, thanks to winter and shipping logistics. Possibly the longest 2 months of my life. Ryan sent me photos over the next two months, and took a few videos just to tide me over. Really great guy, so if you see any of his stuff for sale, buy with complete confidence. Since I bought it right around Christmas, it was the best present I ever had. I had never owned a new car. I bought other people new cars (son, daughter, mom, wife) but I always bought myself a car that was a few years old. This car wasn't brand new, but close enough. The wait was worth it!

But I did have one big problem. My garage was in bad shape. No way it was a suitable bedroom for a car like the GT3. So I spent the next 6 weeks redoing my garage, complete with new flooring, walls, ceilings, cabinets, etc. Here's a picture of it before I started construction.



Yeah, it was bad. Well, six weeks later, a whole lot of pain and cash, and I had it done. It was ready a week or two before the car arrived. Here's the final version. As you can see, I was already planning on a long-term relationship.



Still pretty modest, but at least it isn't terrible anymore.

The car shows up. Intercity shipped it, and I took delivery at Bandimere Speedway. That's fitting! Here's the first up close and personal view I had of the car.



To get my car out they had to back out this baby. Hellcat!



I would love to tell you I have great footage and photos of the car being unloaded, but in typical GoPro fashion, the POS **** itself right at the moment the car was being unloaded.

My first impression of this car was a real honest to goodness "pinch me" moment. While the car was being unloaded a few people walked over to see what was getting delivered. I had a few "awesome car" comments, and they were absolutely right. So if you do ever get one of these things, and you go mostly on photos and videos, you are in for a treat. The car looks amazing in real life. I also want to thank Ryan once again for the condition the car showed up in. The car had been professionally detailed, had a full tank of gas, along with a nice note from him congratulating me. Total class act.

So now let's fast forward to today.

I have put about 12,000 miles on the car in the past 12 months, having taken it to the drags, the track, on long trips, and just about everywhere in between. In terms of issues, I have had none. The car has been flawless. I do most of my own servicing, including oil changes, spark plugs, filters, etc. The car is super easy to work on. Probably the easiest car I have ever worked on. I don't do my own service to save money, although I do save money this way. But I just like spending time in the garage with it.

Here it is being lifted during a recent oil change.



Walking out into the garage and seeing my GT3 has never gotten old. Every car I have owned, with the exception of my 1971 Demon, lost the luster at some point. It was just another car. This car still puts a big smile on my face, because it is pretty much perfect. I find myself looking back when I have parked it somewhere. It's a smile machine. And I still get excited reaching for the keys. Taking this car out is always special. People are always waving and giving thumbs up. And as I have gotten familiar with the car over the past 12 months, one thing really stands out to me. A lot of really amazing people at Porsche have obsessed over every little detail on this car. Nothing is half-baked. The attention to detail is impressive. A tremendous amount of love and passion went into designing and building this car. Well done, Porsche.

It is hard to point out specific things about this car that I love, because that's honestly almost everything. Obviously the performance of this car is amazing, but more on that in a minute. But a few things do come to mind. For starters, the design is complete perfection. To my eyes this is the best looking Porsche ever built, and they build great looking cars. Here's a picture of mine in the morning before a cruise.



I don't think I need to say anymore about the looks, because the beauty of this car is obvious.

I really love the interior, too. Every little piece of the interior is high quality, and polished. Lots of carbon fiber, leather and Alcantara (my spec), combined with great looking gauges and high quality switches. It feels special on the inside. This is very different from the 997 generation. Even our new 550 BMW can't touch this thing for quality inside (or out). Lots of cool little things as well. For example, there is a gap you cannot see around the glove box, so you can put your phone charger cord through it without leaving a dent anywhere. It's the little things that show you that Porsche was really paying attention.

Here's a look at my interior. It's a masterpiece.



The sound plus audio system is fine imo. It is easy to use and sounds good. Some people have upgraded their sound systems, but in my opinion what they give you is serviceable, and the real music happens in the rear. Navigation works pretty good, although I don't really use it that much, and the jukebox is great since it has 40GB of space for my tunes. Plug in your memory stick with music, and a few clicks and you are done. The controls for everything from seat heating to AC are logically placed, and easy to use. Don't worry about trying to navigate countless menus to find things you use often. They are where they should be.

The engine. What a piece of work that thing is. You haven't experienced life until your head snaps back with a lightning quick shift at 9k rpms. The engine is very strong, and pulls hard through pretty much every gear. Even at the high altitude I am at, down 100 horsepower, I still ran low 12's at the drags. Put the car at sea level and you are talking low 11's. That's fast. The sound is something else, too. It just sounds like a proper race car, especially when you jump on it. And you will jump on it. As i stated above, I have the Sharkwerks bypass and it sounds awesome.

The combination of this engine mated with the amazing PDK is just perfect imo. The whole package works so well together. It is obvious that Porsche spent a lot of time making sure these two components worked as one unit. I am not going to debate manual vs automatic here, but I will just say the PDKS perfectly suits this car. Want to just cruise and let the PDK do everthing. No problem. Want to do all the shifting yourself? You are the conductor of this beautiful symphony of gear changes. Going to the track? PDK sport means you are in the right gear anywhere on the track.

The fit and finish of this car is top shelf. Everything opens and closes perfectly. The tactile feel of everything from opening doors, to turning ***** is precise and high quality. And everything works exactly as you expect it to work. I have never once said "why did they do it that way?" Porsche really put a lot of love into making this car as perfect as they could. You can see that everywhere. Even the Porsche emblem on the frunk is extremely high quality. Every time I wash my car I wipe the emblem down, and it always reminds me that nothing was overlooked on this car.

Here's a good picture of it after today's wash.



On the road the car is extremely well behaved. My wife and I cruise a lot, and she never complains about the ride quality. I have the 18-way seats for reference. It's as much of a special occasion for her as it is for me. There's no jarring ride quality like I remember in the 997 GT3 I test drove. And handling isn't just precise. It's go-cart level. You can throw this thing into turns in a way that seems to defy gravity. The car just hooks up. And it is extremely stable. At High Plains Raceway, I could almost stand on the brakes at the end of a long straight, going 130-135 mph, and the car would settle right down, without any worries of being unbalanced, losing the rear, or understeering.

When I say the 991 GT3 is the ultimate track cheater car, I am not kidding. I took my GT3 to the track about a month ago, and I highly recommend doing it, at least once. Regardless how much you push it on the street, you are barely scratching the surface on this car. It is hard to put into words how good this car feels on a race track. In two or three short sessions you will start believing you are the second coming of Lewis Hamilton. Trust me, it's all GT3. Don't worry, it will challenge you on track, just at speeds you didn't think were possible. So stable. So communicative. It is a joy taking this car on a track. If you buy one, that should be high on your bucket list.

Here I am my first time on a race track, at High Plains Raceway.


Driving the car at night isn't something I do often, but when i do it is a special ride. Again, back to details. The LED headlights are a game changer driving at night. So much visibility, you feel like everything is in HD. And those gauges. At night the colors and the brightness of everything inside looks amazing. Like everything else on this car, the interior lighting shows you that people at Porsche obsessed over it to get it right. Hit the brakes and the rear brake light under the wing gives off a cool effect. If you've never taken your GT3 out at night, do it.

Steering is superb. I would not worry about any reviews mentioning that the electric steering is somehow a step down from the previous gen. The car gives you lots of feedback, and steering is extremely precise. If you've never owned a GT3 before, it will be many levels better than anything you've probably ever driven before. The car gets great gas mileage, too, averaging about 22 mpg when I am not on it. Overall it is around 20 mpg. Visibility, like all 911's, is excellent. There are no blind spots.

I have the ceramic brakes, and all I can say is they work great. Stopping power is immense. Cleaning is a breeze, and on the track they are consistent, even after multiple laps of hard braking. They will be expensive to replace, so you should keep that in mind. But everything I have heard about the standard brakes has been positive, so you don't need PCCBs. They do tend to squeak sometimes on the street, but that doesn't really bother me. I also have the front axle lift. It is really good. It works fast, so you hit the easy to access button and a few seconds later it is up. Forget to put it down and it does it by itself once you hit a certain speed. Really well done.

As far as value is concerned it is hard to say a $165,000 car is a bargain. What i will say is this. You definitely get what you pay for. This isn't a car that is selling for far more than it is worth because of flippers or artificial shortages. Every part of this car feels extremely high quality, and you can line it up next to cars twice the cost and feel proud. It's a lot of money, but this is a lot of car. It is a bargain compared to anything available of comparable performance and quality.

As you can tell, I am a big fan. My GT3 has been the best car ownership experience I have ever had. It hits home runs in all the key areas. It is fast. It looks great. It handles superbly. And it reeks quality inside and out. Owning and driving it still feels special and exciting. I am taking it out tomorrow, and the anticipation is already building.

So is everything perfect? Unfortunately, there are a few things that muck up an otherwise incredible car.

I would be negligent if I did not mention the elephant in the room. The engine top end experiences unusually high wear. I am not kidding when I say that many people here are on their second or third engines (or top end rebuilds) because of this. So I would recommend that you buy this car with a good long warranty (CPO) just to be safe. It is my opinion that there is no way that Porsche gets out of dealing with these issues out of warranty. They own this problem. It's just too well documented and known. But you need to have your own comfort level on this topic.

Anything else I can take off points for? The engine does have a tendency to smoke on startup. I am not talking about a puff or two, but what resembles a 4 alarm fire for 20-30 seconds. Just tell yourself it's part of the character of the car. That's what I do. Also, the engine overfill warning message seems to come on randomly. The sensor has issues. I have driven the car for a week or two after an oil change, and then it comes on. It came on my very first run at the drags. That was nerve racking. Porsche needs to sort this out. Also, the tire pressure monitoring system tends to have a bad day every once in a while, telling you tires are not properly inflated, when they are. Could be the altitude I live at.

One more negative, and this really isn't a knock on the GT3. This car is going to ruin you. It sets the bar so high that you are going to have a hard time enjoying almost any other car again. Once you get on the GT3 train, you aren't getting off. It's that good.

Overall, I would say the 991 GT3 is a triumph of design and engineering. This is the perfect sports car in almost every measurable way, but it has one major flaw. That flaw hasn't been a problem for me - yet, and my year of owning this car has produced some of the best times I've ever had, in or out of a car. It's a truly special car and I feel very fortunate to own mine. I have also met a lot of really nice people because of this car, and because of RL. That just adds to the enjoyment.

So...as long as you are protected by a good warranty, you cannot go wrong with this car. It's literally...

The. Best. Car. Ever.

P.S. Most of you guys know I have created some pretty scathing Hitler videos slamming Porsche pretty hard. In case it wasn't obvious already, i love the brand. Sure these cars can be hard to get, are almost always expensive, and aren't perfect, but when I grab the key and get behind the wheel, all that stuff just fades away. Porsche is awesome. My GT3 is awesome. I'm hooked.

UPDATE 01/27/2019: I have now owned my GT3 for just shy of 3 years, clocking almost 30,000 miles. The car is still amazing. The only issues I have had include having the thermostat replaced, and needing to have the driver's side window adjusted. Both taken care of under warranty. The engine (original) still runs strong as ever, and it doesn't feel any different from the day I got it. Still very tight. I don't hear any rattles and it still has that high quality Porsche feel throughout. The PCCB brakes still have like 65% life left on them, which is great. Lifetime brakes! The car still looks and drives like new, inside and out, which is saying something. Needless to say this car has been a great experience.

In my original one year review above I mentioned the "elephant in the room" which was:

I would be negligent if I did not mention the elephant in the room. The engine top end experiences unusually high wear. I am not kidding when I say that many people here are on their second or third engines (or top end rebuilds) because of this. So I would recommend that you buy this car with a good long warranty (CPO) just to be safe. It is my opinion that there is no way that Porsche gets out of dealing with these issues out of warranty. They own this problem. It's just too well documented and known. But you need to have your own comfort level on this topic.

For anyone thinking of buying a 991.1 GT3 this was really the only knock on the car. Nothing else ever really breaks. Thankfully Porsche stepped up and provided a 10 year, 120,000 mile warranty covering the engine, so this issue has been resolved imo. I still have 6 years left on my engine warranty, so if this engine does experience the finger follower issue the new engine will resolve it.

Given that these cars are selling in the $120,000 range now, I believe the 991.1 GT3 provides the best value today of all the high end sports cars. This is not a collector car, but rather one that you put miles on.

Here's a picture after a recent wash. It still looks like new.




So...if you are looking for a sports car, and have $120k burning a hole in your pocket, the 991.1 GT3 is a great choice imo. It has held up extremely well over 3 years and 30,000 miles, and it still puts a big grin on my face every time I grab the keys.

You won't be disappointed!