GrantG

Rumor on Rennteam.com now that Porsche has stopped accepting orders on the 997 GT3, because the GT3 MkII with 440hp 3.8L motor with Direct Injection is coming soon. Confirmed by two separate European Porsche dealers.

Supposedly being done to separate the GT3 a bit more from the forthcoming Direct Injection and facelifted 997S.

http://www.rennteam.com/showflat.php...&page=0#366483

Don't know if this is BS or not...

eclou

Interesting. I would expect a MKII RS then otherwise the regular 3 will outshine it

Hank Cohn

Grant,

The direct injection makes a lot of sense. As soon as I saw that technology being deployed to the Cayenne, I was sure that the 911/GT cars were soon to follow. I am actually quite surprised that it didn't happen with the 911 first. I would guess that the only reason not to use direct injection would for homologation regulations should that even be a factor at this point.

I would be surprised, however, if Porsche put a 3.8 in the cars. I would think that decision would also force a 3.8 for the Turbo; but, perhaps, there is a lot performance left in the Turbo 3.6 to bridge the gap.

From one point of view this is an exciting development. As a current 7gt3 owner, however, it is somewhat of a bummer – and an expensive one at that!

Hank

C.J. Ichiban

when is soon exactly? I'd like to get one of those

GrantG

I would guess model-year 2009, but don't know...

C.J. Ichiban

3.8 445 hp is ruf's current RGT... but porsche has been using 3.8L configurations for over a decade, there's really not too much of a surprise to see it back in the racier version cars. Direct injection is cool in my audi so I'm sure it will be great in the 911.


I guess people are naturally going to complain if their mk1 gt3 gets surpassed so soon, but how much different is this displacement/ hp increase compared to ferrari with their method of going 360, 360CS, 430, 430 CS, etc?

996 had two versions of the GT3, and now the 997s had the x51 kit with the same HP as the 996gt3...seems natural to me.

IMO, any porsche we buy new is going to be outperformed by an evolution down the road...if this rumor is true I'm more happy that porsche is going after the performance envelope than I am worried about resale.

JJJ911

The current GT3 is such an amazing car one of the best from Porsche in a long time that an extra 25 horsepower is not going to cause many current owners to trade up. I for one am happy that the production numbers have been kept low at 700, hopefully they keep production low on 3.8 version.

iLLM3

Wow interesting info, thanks for sharing!

JFT

Just to confirm. My dealer has already taken a deposit from me on the MKII RS. The only expected addition to the above being PDK (or similar), which he is confident about. Model Year 2009.

VERBOTN

hmmmm, perhaps I will keep my position. Until now I was getting rather frustrated with the whole thing.

NJ-GT

- 997 X51 with DI could be close to the 997 GT3 power.
- There was a rumor of a 3.8 dry sump, and I was expecting that with the RS but it didn't happen.
- There was a 3.8 street 964 and 993, but no 3.8 street 996.

If Porsche plays smart, the car could be called 997 GT3 3.8 RSR, with a base price of $155k and another 25Hp.

PURE

A couple of German friends have also mentioned that the 3.8 is in the works and they have held off swapping out their 996 GT3 MkII's/Rs's et al. Being that Porsche has been struggling against the big motored F430 in GT2 for the past years you can be sure they are looking into making a more powerful racing machine asap. Manthey had been endurance racing with their 3.9 conversion with great success and as mentioned by C.J. Ichiban, RUF's RGT 3.8 is no slouch either! No doubtr Porsche Motorsport's engine gurus will come out with something genius!

Nordschleife

The 3.8RSR exists already!

Sechszylindermotor in Boxeranordnung
3.795 ccm, Hub 76,4 mm, Bohrung 102,7 mm Ø
max. Drehmoment 435 Nm bei 7250 1/min
max. Leistung: 358 kW (485 PS) bei 8400 1/min mit Restriktoren 2 x 30,3 mm Ø
max. Drehzahl: 9000 1/min
Vierventiltechnik
Wasserkühlung
Ölkühlung über Öl-/Wasser Wärmetauscher
Trockensumpfschmierung, motorfest verbauter Trockensumpf-Tank aus Carbon
Kühlwasser- und Motoröl-Druckbefüllung
Sauganlage mit Einzeldrosselklappen
elektronisches Motormanagement MS 4.0
Kraftstoffqualität: Superplus bleifrei, 98 ROZ
Abgasanlage: Fächerkrümmer mit offenem Auslaß, ohne Katalysator

So I hope your 'German' friends aren't still waiting for PAG to release the 3.8 litre engine.

The problems with the 430 are as much to do with chassis dynamics and newfound reliability on Ferraris part. It is entirely possible that the limits of the 911 platform are beginning to be demonstrated after 40 years. If an experienced team is angling for a Le Mans entry in the GT2 class, the choice of car is no longer quite so straight forward. It is signifricant that Alzen has switched from the 911 platform to the Cayman for his current endurance race car.

Be aware that there is more than one 3.8 block and that their external dimensions are significantly different.

R+C

PURE

Right you are on all accounts Nordschliefe - I had completely overlooked the fact that Poersche that allready went to 3.8 on the RSR - thanks for settign me striaght. As for the recent success of the 430 - Chassis dynamics of the mid engined layoput combined with their newfound reliability is clearly a problem for the RSR's - which opted to take a weight penalty and larger wheel tyre packages this season. As for the limits of the 911 chassis - the reality is eveyone in racing allready new it would arrive sooner than later - afterall the 911 GT1 was midengined was it not? Granted no one can deny the fruits of Porsche's 40 years of development and their unquestionable ability to build competive and bulletproof race cars. That being said - the F430 motor puts up very big numbers and would not be surprised that Porsche is investigating other solutions of displacement et al. I had even read somewhere they were talking about going 8 cylinder in the future - but have no idea if that is true. Do you know anything about this? As for my friends on your side of the border - they are still waiing for the 3.8 that may never come -to each his own!

RR

The 3.8L RSR is mechanically direct injected, not electronically. I highly doubt Porsche will offer a 3.8L AND DI in the next GT3.

And I don't see Porsche electronically DI-ing the 964 block.

Seeing how Porsche is very conservative, I can only seeing them increasing the capacity of the 964 block in the road GT3 to 3.8L, to keep it ahead of the DI M96 motor. If they DI'd AND 3.8'd the 964 block that would be overkill, kind of like Intel offering a trillion MHZ processor for sale when they could easily just offer a billion MHZ processor to maintain long term sales growth- if you know what I mean.

Second, I don't think they care about what there competitors are doing. They have already sold out of GT3's and RS's...its not like they are starving for business - they don't need to wow anyone, just maintain, and a 964 block bored out to 3.8L WITHOUT DI will do the job just nicely. I wish they would do both, but honestly if they did, it would BLOW the Turbo away.

The Turbo is really hurting the GT3's progression. They either need to get rid of it, OR put it into 599 category. There is too much overlap right now.