kaylie

first time in my life i drove a 2018 gt3 due to covid 19 boredom and was instantly hooked. the sound, the throttle, the responsiveness. came back from test drive and purchased on the stop. thanks covid

evilfij

I think you are crazy, but that does not mean you should not get a 2018 GT3. The best way to know is to go drive a GT3 and see what you think.

chance6

I've had both those cars...while the GTS has just enough power for the street, the GT3 is in another league and if the interior is a little different in the GT3, it will be an entirely new experience.

chance6

Just a quick run-down of my opinions on these cars at a high level:

991.1 GTS - you can Cadillac around in normal mode and the ride quality is awesome...that's why some consider it the best overall value in the 911 range. Then in Sport plus you have a very exciting car. The PDK shifting is more edgy, and the high end of the rev range makes it kinda get a little close to GT3 feel. Kinda. A very well-balanced car.

991.2 GT3 - everything is heightened senses here. PDK box is different, car jolts you at low speeds shifting into 1st gear, engine wants to be beaten up. Car warms up faster. Car corners like a beast. Cup2 tires can be a PITA when not warm. The electronic nannies are there to save your #ss...let them work for you. Car on start-up means the business. If you like sound system, great ride quality, forget it, because those are secondary. Not to say the ride quality sucks, it doesn't, but it ain't a GTS or a Turbo S in that department.
Another thing: the car really shines above 7000 rpm, and peak torque is 6000 rpm. That's where you really feel the 4.0 liter at work. If you haven't driven a GT3 ever, it may really shock you when you wind it up and keep going 7000 rpm and above. Someone once described it as a table saw going thru an armoire.

991.2 TTS - to me, the best sports car available. Presence and speed. Depends on what you like. Just my opinion. Everyone is different and a car makes them feel a certain way.

Have you driven a 991.2 GTS?? Loads more acceleration than a .1 GTS.

chance6

I guess one more quick thing: the GT3 is NOT bi-modal. In other words, it's always in Sport mode, basically...hitting the button to go into PDK Sport changes things a little bit, but overall it's the same feel. Suspension always real stiff. Always rides low. It's definitely a change. Not good in the rain either, with Cup 2s. A very exciting and well-built sports car, but definitely not bi-modal.

groundhog

Depends on what you use the car for.............I had a 991.2 GTS and preferred it to the GT3. Lots of flexibility and with SPASM and RAS you get the best of all worlds.

I would test drive a few different variants and drawer your own conclusion - asking the question you asked in this forum is guaranteed to generate a narrow response.

I noted your comment about the 505HP minisuv - I suspect you may prefer the 550Nm torquey engine in the .2 GTS over the fairly thin 460Nm in the GT3 although some of this is balanced out by the slightly short gearing in the GT3.

Another one to think about, if you don't need the seats is the 982 (718) GTS 4L - I've some pretty decent sheet metal in my garage and my go to car is an old 981 GTS with lockable diff. That car is a hoot, loves to turn and rev out and remains comfortable over long distances - particularly with the Sports plus seats.

Plenty of room to think out side the square with Porsche.

Jzips

The theater of the GT3 is immensely more exciting. While people will say the GT3 is a “step forward” or “better handling” or whatever similar hierarchical comparisons, the reality is both of these cars are going to be more car than you can fully utilize (unless you are a quasi-pro driver). I would imagine that maybe 2% to 3% of the drivers on this forum could actually operate the car within the slim differential of performance by which the GT3 exceeds the capabilities of the GTS. But off the bat you will notice a tremendous difference in the sound and the stiffness of the GT3. I find it so much more exciting and fun than normal 991 variants.

Porsche911GTS'16

A few pros for the GTS for those of you considering one or the other: It can be had in coupe, cab, or Targa. It has back seats. It can be quite sedate at one moment and with the push of a few buttons, it is very sporty. The GT3's sportiness can't be titrated to taste (other than the chassis).

parkerfe

I used a Turbo-S for my daily commute of around 60 miles round trip for two years. I replaced it with a GT3 and couldn't be more pleased. The Turbo-S was fast, but almost Lexis like, whereas the GT3 makes for a much more enjoyable commute. I almost always use the shifter to manual change gears so I can keep the revs high in low speeds for the sound. I never use the floppy-paddles.

LAItalian

I own a GT3T.
I think it is real simple: if you are looking for a more visceral, less comfortable experience go GT3, if you are looking for more comfort less noise, etc go GTS or Turbo.

I drive very little so i deliberately chose a fun car, 6-speed manual, noisy, rigid, bucket seats.etc, if I had to drive every day 20-30 miles in LA traffic I would have picked another car. One thing I don't agree with is people that say the GT3 is comfortable, it is not. Maybe we are confusing how absorbing it is and forgetting about what comfort means. Bumps, pot holes, almost any normal driving scenarios ask for a more comfortable car. If you just drive it for pleasure however, it is unbeatable.
My two cents.

Hmet

I think the above replies that mentioned the torque being the factor as to why u probably like the mini suv are ,to me, the most insightful. What the 991.1 GTS (I had the same engine on c4s with power kit upgrade) misses is the low end torque. The car starts coming alive later in the rpm range and is indeed very nice then and pulls hard. The gt3 on the other hand has a lot more low end torque but is also naturally aspirated and progressively delivers more torque as u rev the car up to 6000 rpm I believe. So if the hypothesis is true (that u prefer turbo charged cars with higher low end torque), then you might be better off in a turbo.
The gt3 comes with a race car sportiness which is evident in everything as mentioned here, and thAt includes a comfort trade off. Personally I loved it as a second car, and imho I think it would be a tough daily drive on roads with bumps (Like what I have where I live).
The gt3 is a lot more potent than the GTS 991.1, it’s also more noisy, and the PDK on the gt3 had a very distinctive bag-of-spanners-like noise (that grows on u) at low speed that the 991.1 c4s didn’t have. The gt3 is not bimodal like what was mentioned here. This to me would summarize a very good bundle of insight for your decision. Best of luck and enjoy these awesome cars.

ipse dixit

That's sort of like saying one of the pros of Peter Luger is that it has salmon on the menu.

Porsche911GTS'16

Very funny. At this point, Peter Luger has nothing on the menu....

In making an informed decision about getting a GTS vs a GT3, it is notable that one comes with backseats and the other does not. Not everyone on RL knows this distinction, believe it or not. Further, there have been many on RL - including Pete Stout - who have mentioned how a Touring would be the pretty close to the ideal car if back seats were an option. So, #backseatsmatter - perhaps not to some, but it does to others. Enjoy your steak!