Cuda911

Just wanted to mention to OP, I find this a very interesting thread. I've never driven a GT3, and have frequently heard comments that it's a fantastic track car but a poor daily driver, but never knew why the "poor daily driver" assessment. Nevertheless, if someone were to offer to give me a GT3, I wouldn't turn them down.

mhh

Good question. It depends where you live/drive. Some places have more places to use a GT3 on the road than others.

Manifold

Good points, I forgot about the e-diff and torque vectoring.

Clarence Ng

Awesome thread, thanks for starting it OP! As a current owner of an E92 M3 and F10 M5, this is very relevant information for me. I am seriously considering buying the 991 GT3 and will get to sample it next Sunday at Sepang F1 circuit in a dealer event. Having driven the 991 C2S, I found it disappointing and am glad the GT3 is a couple of notches above the C2S. Can't wait for next Sunday...

Gravs

A very powerful, high revving engine makes for an excellent DD as it gives you two cars in one. I am waiting to confirm this in my GT3 but it's certainly true of the C2S as that's a great DD but really comes alive when you put it in sport mode and trash it. Similar effect with my V-TEC equipped CRX all those years ago

Ychaudhary

The car by no means will disappoint. If this car disappoints then honestly you probably are on the wrong forum. The car is amazing when pushed to the edge and I did a 3 hour road trip this past week in it and had no issues "Daily Driving" it. It was comfortable (for a Porsche) and I had plenty of legroom and enough cabin space to stretch out. The car made for an awesome DD and more importantly it's ridiculous amounts of fun.

The only thing that is still hindering me is that I keep looking through my rear view mirror attempting to look behind me but its a total fail because I can't see anything with the wing. The first thing I do when I take off is look in the rear view for any cops, but I'm rendered useless here. As the other owners would attest to is that you start getting used to looking in the side view mirrors.

Nick

A sport car has a function just as does a sedan. It seems to me taking a sedan or even an SUV and tracking it would be like performing brain surgery while wearing a catchers mitt.

cingulus

I agree completely, I will probably only track my car 3-4 times a year, but in Socal, lots of great canyons to run the car on

Hoopumpers

Wow - exactly my experience. Please update this thread with your impressions after the weekend. Have fun!

Hoopumpers

50km corner entry speed on track Macca? Are you sure you don't mean autocross?

ShakeNBake

If you are at the point where you drive by feel, and very close/comfortable to the traction limit in your M3, the first time you drive a track focused 911 (GT3, RS etc) is going to be a interesting and eyebrow raising experience for you. The two cars could not be more different (slight hyperbole) in grip and and dynamic character. Set aside weight differences, power, and tire sizes for a second. Where the M3 is very stable and neutral at turn-in and mid corner, the 911 is nervous, understeering, and not confidence inspiring. Where the M3 is unstable at corner exit under full power, the 911 can put down massive, stable power. Where the M3 is neutral and easy to control via throttle and relatively happy with adjustments in front-rear weight transfer, the 911 is absolutely not happy using the same magnitude of input/changes.

The net of all of this is that you have to drive the 911 very differently, and you need to find your confidence in new places. The grip and stability under power means you can get on the gas waaaaaay earlier in a corner, and you need to see past the initial difficulty and instability in entering the corner (I am talking in relative terms...). Your confidence and precision also needs to be greater, because you don't have as much ability to correct a mistake (i.e. no lifting throttle to tuck the nose in).

My first time out in the RS disappointed and scared me at the same time. I felt like I had lost the ability to drive (the way I drive - which is by the seat of the pants, not by calculation). I was not much faster, despite having a 700+lb weight advantage, and 40 more HP - it completely shattered my confidence (not to mention I was pushing a car that was worth more than 3x my E90 around). That feeling started to go away after a few days of seat time, and now it's mostly gone and replaced with a new kind of confidence. Having seen the differences in dynamics and grip, etc - I can get into any car and very quickly drive with higher confidence and speed. Kind of like - "if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball" feeling.

For a just-getting-started soon to be track junkie, the GT3 is going to feel better right out of the box. It's tighter, controls body motions better, and is massively lighter on it's feet. Steering and general feedback are much better. You will like it for sure, its a big step closer to a race car than a OEM M3. And you'll be faster because it's lighter and has more thrust.

But ultimately it's more difficult to drive at or approaching the limits. And that is where the appeal comes from - the character, the challenge in mastering it....many people who get hooked on this go backwards in time to buy older 911s that expose this character in higher concentrations. Part of the reason why there has been such a love-it/hate-it/complain/whining air about the 991. I've not driven a 991 gt3 yet but I can imagine that Porsche has minimized a lot of the sources of confidence issues through physical chassis improvements (longer wheelbase, center of gravity shift forward), and with gizmos like RWS, e-diff, vectoring, and other wonders, and dialed up the bad-*** race-car factor.

tripleblack

^ Great post. Would you mind sharing the differences between the cars in the brake zones? Tks.

ShakeNBake

911 has so much more weight over rear axle that the rear can actually provide significantly more stopping force - and overall greater deceleration force than an M3. Your braking zones can be shorter - but you will want to more gently transition weight to the rear before you turn-in (which is generally later anyways). Because the turn-in is later and the forces can be quite a bit higher, you will start braking later than before. I had to learn to heal-toe when moving to the RS, so my braking zones got all sorts of crazy messed up for a time....

Macca

ShakeNBake. Great write up mate. You nailed the difference between front engine RWD and 991 driving at the track very well!

frayed

Yeah great post shake. While I agree, I hadn't progressed to a level where I completely regained the confidence lost from the benign bmw chassis. Will now go to work on that.