{"id":27636,"date":"2021-07-15T18:24:20","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T22:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=27636"},"modified":"2021-07-15T18:24:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T22:24:20","slug":"payne-taking-it-to-the-limit-in-porsches-911-gt3-supercar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/payne-taking-it-to-the-limit-in-porsches-911-gt3-supercar","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Taking it to the limit in Porsche’s 911 GT3 supercar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Braselton, Georgia<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Inside The Driving Club garage, which offers regular track time on the challenging Road Atlanta Raceway here, Porsches proliferate. As they do at M1 Concourse car club in Pontiac. And Autobahn Race Club in Chicago. And anywhere else enthusiasts go to satisfy their need for speed.<\/p>\n

The reason is simple: Porsche makes the world\u2019s best sports cars. They may not be the flashiest. Or the most expensive. But they are relentlessly, ruthlessly good at carving up race tracks.<\/p>\n

Just as relentlessly, better models keep coming. Say hello to the 2022 911 GT3, the new Porsche standard.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
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Hustling down Road Atlanta\u2019s pit straight, I stabbed the enormous\u00a016-inch brakes at 140 mph into Turn One and the car slowed as if enveloped with an invisible net, yanking my eyeballs from their sockets. With double-wishbone front suspension right off an IMSA RSR race car and rear-wheel steering, the 3,150-pound beast rotated effortlessly into the fast right-hander \u2014 and I was hard on throttle before I reached the apex.<\/p>\n

How hard? I caught Patrick Long, Porsche\u2019s ace IMSA driver, in a 911 Turbo S \u2014 the fastest car in Porsche\u2019s non-GT stable. As good as it is, the Turbo S doesn\u2019t have the GT3\u2019s huge\u00a0swan-neck rear wing for added downforce. Or that front suspension. Or Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R tires that stick like flypaper to asphalt.<\/p>\n

Long wasn\u2019t dogging it. At the top of the hill into Turn 2, he vaulted over the inside curb to keep the pace while my GT3 effortlessly carved around the curb, glued to his tail.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
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\u201cI have to nail the curbs to stay ahead of you guys,\u201d laughed Long afterward\u00a0to a group of journalist drivers who had come to Road Atlanta. \u201cThe GT3 is that good.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the Porsche GT3 does. It makes hero drivers out of amateurs. I can rattle off the GT3\u2019s stats for hours: 502 horsepower, 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds, 197 mph top speed.<\/p>\n

But those are numbers common in the supercar class. What separates the GT3 \u2014 and all Porsches \u2014 is how effortless it is to drive fast.<\/p>\n

While shredding one of America\u2019s most fearsome race tracks, it was imperturbable. Rock solid. Poker faced. Never once does the car scare me, snap out of line or push menacingly close to the apron. Quite the contrary \u2014 it constantly demanded more of me. I came off the track perspiring, not because I was sawing the wheel, but because of the absurd g-loads I was carrying. And in a production vehicle, mind you.<\/p>\n

Long demonstrated the full capabilities of the car earlier in the day. He lapped Road Atlanta in 1 minute, 26.46 seconds \u2014 just 7 seconds off the pole time set by the fanged, stripped, full-roll cage\u00a02,700-pound IMSA GTD Porsche GT3 at last year\u2019s Petit Le Mans road race. (\u201cI wish race cars had rear-wheel steering,\u201d laughed Long).<\/p>\n

Credit the inherent goodness of the Porsche 911 recipe.<\/p>\n

\"Around<\/p>\n
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The $162,450 GT3 is based on the standard\u00a0$90,000 911. It is a car so good that, as my colleague Eric Tingwall at Car and Driver once wrote, it will challenge rational thought: \u201cInstead of asking, \u2018How much does it cost?\u2019 you’ll start thinking, \u2018How can I afford it?\u2019 Sell your family’s fourth-generation vacation home. Siphon off your kid’s college fund. Steal from the collection plate. All of these are sane ideas after some quality time in a 911 …\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n

For my trip to Road Atlanta an hour northeast of the city, I drove the all-wheel-drive 4S version of the 911. I gave little thought to the infotainment system (which is a good thing, since the 911 lacks only in electronic functionality, with navigation system\/voice commands notably inferior to the high bar set by BMW and Tesla). The car was a constant source of amusement.<\/p>\n

Luffing along an empty stretch of highway at 75 mph in eighth gear, I pressed the Sports Response button. The dual-clutch transmission instantly downshifted to third, the flat-six engine shrieked like a poked Tyrannosaurus rex and I vaulted down the road at (speeds withheld to preserve my license).<\/p>\n

Country roads are even more fun with the 911\u2019s limitless grip and legendary rear traction. Curves are a blur. Stop signs become excuses to do launch-control-assisted 0-60 mph runs. Such taxing behavior will test other, mere mortal, performance cars. The 911 will do launches all day.<\/p>\n

The GT3 takes this tasty recipe and bellies up to the buffet bar to add even more meat.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
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Red meat like the delicious\u00a04.0-liter\u00a0normally-aspirated flat-six cylinder engine that is one of the jewels of autodom. It\u2019s a reminder in this EV-obsessed age of the visceral appeal of automobiles. I\u2019ve been in love with flat-sixes since I was a teen, and GT3\u2019s 9,000-RPM shriek never ceases to entertain.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same engine that inhabited the last-gen GT3 RS that I flogged at Road America three years ago (that\u2019s right, the GT3 will ultimately get an even more potent RS variant).<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not the engine that shaved an astonishing 17 seconds off the last-gen GT3\u2019s Nurburgring lap time. It\u2019s the attention to engineering detail that marries chassis, engineering\u00a0and tire technology into a more perfect union.<\/p>\n

You read that right: minus-17 seconds. The 2022 GT3 broke The Green Hell\u2019s magic 7-minute barrier. I\u2019ll pause while you pick your jaw off the floor.<\/p>\n

In addition to the aforementioned double-wishbone front suspension, tires, adjustable-rear wing\u00a0and rear-wheel-steer, the 911 GT3 gains carbon fiber hood, a different front nose for better downforce, air scoops for cooling, 1.9-inch wider track\u00a0and center-exhaust system.<\/p>\n

All told, the Porsche makes 317 pounds of downforce at 125 mph, and 770 pounds at top speed. When you are at full chat through Road Atlanta\u2019s lip-puckering\u00a0downhill esses, you want all the downforce you can muster. The GT3 will do loads for your self-esteem.<\/p>\n

And for flattening your pocket book. But if you want to keep up with the Joneses at Road Atlanta\u2019s Driving Club, you need the best money can buy. The GT3 has raised the bar again.<\/p>\n

\"Detroit<\/p>\n
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2022 Porsche 911 GT3<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Vehicle type: Rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive\u00a0two-passenger\u00a0sportscar<\/p>\n

Price: $162,450, including $1,350\u00a0destination fee<\/p>\n

Powerplant: 4.0-liter\u00a0flat-6 cylinder<\/p>\n

Power:\u202f502\u00a0horsepower,\u00a0346\u00a0pound-feet of torque<\/p>\n

Transmission:\u00a07-speed automatic; 6-speed manual<\/p>\n

Performance: 0-60 mph\u00a0(3.2 sec., mfr.); top speed,\u00a0197\u00a0mph\u00a0(198 mph, manual)<\/p>\n

Weight:\u00a03,126\u202fpounds\u202f(automatic as tested)<\/p>\n

Fuel economy: EPA, 15 mpg city\/20\u00a0highway\/17\u00a0combined<\/p>\n

Report card<\/p>\n

Highs:\u00a0Precise, predictable handling;\u00a0that flat-6 sound<\/p>\n

Lows:\u00a0Hard-sprung daily driver; big sticker<\/p>\n

Overall:\u00a04\u202fstars<\/p>\n

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Braselton, Georgia\u00a0\u2014 Inside The Driving Club garage, which offers regular track time on the challenging Road Atlanta Raceway here, Porsches proliferate. As they do at M1 Concourse car club in Pontiac. And Autobahn Race Club in Chicago. And anywhere else enthusiasts go to satisfy their need for speed. The reason is simple: Porsche makes the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27637,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27636\/revisions\/27637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}