1: This is the Porsche 911 GT3 touring.
2: And on the outset, it's a car that
doesn't make a lot of sense.
The touring starts as a regular GT3.
The track focused 911, with a racing derived suspension,
lightweight windows, and a high revving 502 horsepower 6
cylinder engine.
You see that massive wing?
The one held up by those attention grabbing
so-called swan neck structures?
Porsche clearly spent time developing it,
considering the aerodynamic implications
of moving the mounts from the bottom of the wing to the top.
And on the touring, they've removed it.
In its place, is a spoiler that automatically deploys
at certain speeds or at the push of a button
if you to have it on while you're parked
and if you want to be that kind of person.
It isn't adjustable though, beyond being on or off
and it clearly can't be as responsible for as much
down-force as that swan neck supported
rear wing on the regular GT3.
That means the Touring is a GT3 that's
less capable from an aerodynamic perspective.
Which to many, this might seem strange,
because the touring costs the same as a regular GT3.
What makes this so appealing then?
This.
You get all of the thrill in the performance from the GT3's
engine and chassis but in a package that's far more subtle.
You could argue that a Porsche 911 isn't subtle,
and you'd be correct if you weren't in Los Angeles.
Here, this GT3 touring blends into the scenery like a Toyota
Prius or a taco truck.
That means the touring will only be recognized
by hardcore Porsche aficionados, which may or may not
be what you're looking for.
Oh, man what a mighty, mighty engine.
So much of this driving experience
is the same as the standard GT3, so a lot of this
might be repetitive to what you've already
seen in the video that Alistair did with the GT3
at Road Atlanta, but I just can't
help emphasize how much of a thrill this engine is.
And the funny thing too, is it's not
all that powerful in the realm of $200,000 sports
cars produced in the year 2021.
503 horsepower, you can get a Corvette with nearly that.
You can get a Mustang with more than that these days.
But it's the nature of how this power is delivered.
It's that character of the engine and the fact
that it rents out to 9,000 RPM.
And if you start at a really low engine speed
and just let that power build, I'm
going to try to do that now, you can just
tell by the swell of the power that there's nothing
like this else out there.
That howl and that experience is just tremendous.
And the fact that its peak power above 8,000 RPM
means that experience of revving the engine out to its red line
is just-- like it's an operatic.
There is a sweet, sweet sound and experience
of doing that and when you hit the gear change,
the howl you get on up shift is just beautiful.
There are much quicker cars than the GT3 and the GT3 touring.
The claim 0-60 time isn't that impressive, again,
in today's world of Tesla Model S's, right?
But when you drive it, when you get down to the experience,
you don't care.
And what's better, is that you can experience this with a six
speed manual transmission.
Yeah, you get a six speed manual or Porsche's dual clutch
automatic transmission in this car, whichever one you want.
Now, more people will probably choose
that dual clutch automatic, because it makes it quicker,
it makes it more accessible.
But of course, the elitist purists
will definitely want this six speed manual.
It's the one I'd take too, because there's something
about the experience of operating machinery,
complex machinery, that's working at the peak level
that it can.
The experienced of engaging with that system,
choosing the gears, yes, it's not the quickest way to do it,
but it is satisfying in a way that you can't really
logic out.
And that works for the GT3 touring,
because this is a car that doesn't really logic out.
Its a less aerodynamic version of the GT3.
So you kind of get that with the package of the car.
I love that.
It does have auto rev matching downshifts.
That was all the car.
You can turn that off and on depending
on how much you want to--
you can turn that off and on depending
on how much you want to engage with the gas and the clutch
pedal and do that.
That's up to you.
You've of course, got a sport exhaust system
that you can turn off and on to make it louder.
That should always be on.
And that's how I've got this thing configured.
This is a nice six speed manual, too.
It's not a really tight gear ratio,
it's not like a click, click.
It does take a bit of effort to muscle through.
Not a high effort, but I've been in snappier gearboxes,
for sure.
I've experienced snappy gearboxes.
This one feels good though, the mechanical action
or the movement that you feel going from gear to gear
is very pleasing and very nice.
I should say that when the duty GT3 touring was announced
with a manual transmission, there was word
that the manual would not be available on this car
in California, the official state of no fun.
That has since been addressed, and yes, you
can now get the GT3 touring with a manual in California.
They figured that one out, so we can bypass all that now.
Let's talk about handling.
Yeah, the GT3 does handling.
So the big news for this generation, the GT3,
was the switch from a front strut suspension
to a control arm, or wishbone style front suspension,
as derived from Porsche's RSR Racing Series.
What does that mean when you actually
experience the car on the road?
Well, not much, unless you're really
driving fast, to be honest.
This is a car, though, that has a tremendous amount of grip,
a tremendous amount of stick, a tremendous amount of feedback
to the driver, and it's going to do things
when you throw it around a corner that makes you smile.
The steering is in typical Porsche fashion.
The steering is light, but precise.
And that's good, because light steering,
if it has the accuracy behind it,
light steering means you can drive quickly for a long time
without feeling fatigued.
That's an important bit.
Now, as for grip, a lot of that's
going to come from the tire and boy,
how does this car have a lot of tire.
The front wheels are 20 inches in diameter.
The rears are 21 inches in diameter.
You get a Michelin pilot's sport cup 2 on your GT3 touring.
And if you so choose, you can get the cup 2 R variant,
which is an even stickier more ludicrous version
of the tire that has incredibly more grip,
but is dramatically worse in low temperature and wet weather
situations.
It's such to the point that you can't actually
click that tire option in the Porsche configurator online,
you have to ask the dealership to install it for you
and once you do, I'm told, they give you
a very careful conversation about what
a car on that kind of tire actually is like
and what you should know about it.
But that's beyond the point.
This is a car with a lot of grip.
And a lot of brake too.
On that end you have massive rotor's front and rear,
optional carbon ceramics as well, just again,
like the regular GT3.
This car is on the standard.
Brake rotor does not have the optional carbon ceramics.
And that's OK for when a car intends to be--
for what it intends to be a street car,
yeah, maybe you don't need to spend that money
on the optional carbon ceramics.
The stopping power is more than adequate for anything
that you should be doing on a mountain road,
even when you're driving fast.
I think one of the most impressive things
about the GT3 touring and 911's in general,
is that there's a lot of technology happening between me
and the driving experience and most of it is invisible.
This car with a manual transmission
gets a [INAUDIBLE] locking differential.
If you have the dual clutch automatic,
you get electronically locking differential.
I spent time with both outside of the GT3, of course,
they feel great.
You have rear axle steering, so the rear wheels
turn in and out of phase with the front wheels
by a very small amount to increase low speed nimbleness
and increase high speed stability.
There's advance stability control, and traction control,
and so on and so forth.
But you don't notice this stuff when you're driving.
When you're moving in this car, your experience
is primarily the handling quality, the steering agility,
the sound and response of the engine,
and you just end up smiling a whole bunch.
And that's really what makes these cars work so well.
With a car like the GT3 touring, it just
amplifies all those experiences.
You have more horsepower, a higher red line,
it's just more of that thrill and that--
just makes the experience way more sweet.
Yes, this is a lot of car, but as it should,
because it's a lot of price and you get a lot of performance
with it.
I mean, hey, this is a car that still
has a top speed of just under 200 miles an hour,
should you ever find a place that can explore it.
This is a car that still is relatively lightweight.
3100, 3200 pounds, depending on how you configure it
based off Porsche's claims.
And so what if it doesn't have a big bear wing?
This is actually how I prefer to have
a GT3, assuming I could afford one, because let's face, it
you're not going to use all that arrow
when you're just commuting to cars and coffee in the morning.
So that's the driving experience.
Let's talk about the interior experience.
Yes, this is laid out exactly like the current generation
992 911 with all the pluses and minuses
pluses being a terrific steering wheel,
this shifter is unique to the GT3.
It's placed really well, except if you have a cup in the cup
holder, then it's not so great.
But that's always been a problem with Porsche's.
The steering wheel feels terrific,
but it also blocks the outer more windows of this gauge
cluster, so you can never quite see exactly what all the gauges
are showing you at once.
That's always been an issue, but man, the center gauge cluster,
the center tachometer, just looks beautiful.
It looks like a finely tuned time piece.
A fancy watch.
You know.
And the way they control the tac--
the way they control the needle in the tac, yes,
I'm sure they're not giving you the honest representation
of what actually is happening in the engine.
I'm sure they're damping that needle
to make it seem more smooth than it actually is.
But you know what, that's OK.
Because it looks good and it works well.
The layout of all the controls and buttons
feel nice, except for the extensive use
of piano black, which has already
collected a bunch of smudges.
And then, we have to talk about these bucket seats.
If you are sized like me, which is 5'10, 175 pounds,
avoid these bucket seats at all costs.
If you are tall, like Alistair, or presumably your average
German, these seats are going to be fine.
If you are of average height though,
these seats are desperately uncomfortable,
because they are full bucket seats
and that means your adjustment range is forward and aft
and up and down.
There's no recline, and as far as I can tell, there's no tilt.
And that makes these seats incredibly
uncomfortable for long distances and actually,
in my-- for me personally, for the way my body is sized,
hurts the driving experience.
Not enough to make me not want to drive it though,
it's still a terrific car, but at least it's
an option that you can avoid.
2: My favorite part about the Touring is the honesty.
You don't buy a GT3 with a wing because you
care about lap times.
And you don't get one with a manual transmission
to brag about it 0-60 acceleration.
There are quicker all electric sedans for half the price,
for crying out loud.
Futher, the GT3's racetrack optimized design
means the touring has a rough ride and a loud interior.
When combined with those optional and super body
size specific bucket seats, you'll
think twice about taking this on long road trips.
Yet, the touring sticks in my mind
and that persistence highlights what makes it so special.
It retains the thrill of the GT3 from the steering response
and handling to that Russia power
as you approach 9,000 RPM, but it's all
wrapped in a far less attention seeking package.
And the result frees you from needing to care about anything
other than the drive.