MOTORSPORT: New Cup racer provides clues to Porsche's next GT3

Porsche has revealed its all-new GT3 Cup car and the first official video and images show the redesigned 991-series 911 racer will be the first to feature steering wheel shift paddles.

Essentially, the latest GT3 Cup racer employs the same six-speed sequential manual ‘dog box’ transmission with a pedal-operated racing clutch as its forebear, but this time round gearshift duties have moved from stick to steering wheel.

While that doesn’t in itself prove correct widespread speculation the next GT3 road car will be the first to be fitted with an automatic transmission, it will provide a clear marketing link between Porsche’s top-shelf racer and the road car upon which it’s based.

However, motoring.com.au sources have confirmed the street-legal 911 GT3 will not only be the first fitted with an automatic transmission, but the first not to be available with a conventional manual transmission.

Porsche revealed the new GT3 Cup car during this year’s Night of Champions event at its Weissach R&D centre on the weekend.

Based on the German sportscar brand’s seventh-generation 911 (the 991 series, which is effectively only the third all-new 911 in more than 50 years), the racetrack-only GT3 Cup car will debut in Europe’s one-make Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup next year.

The all-new GT3 Cup car will then contest Australia’s Carrera Cup in 2014, with 24 of the fire-breathing racecars expected on local grids the year after next.

Expect first local deliveries of the road-registerable GT3 upon which it’s based to arrive in Australia before then in late 2013, following an expected world debut at the Geneva motor show in March.

Porsche says the 911 GT3 Cup is the most successful racecar in the world, with 2395 examples produced since 1998.

Built by Porsche Motorsport, the Cup car is powered by a 3.8-litre flat six that delivers 338kW (up 10hp) to the rear wheels at 7500rpm.

New features include a new FIA-approved rollcage, a full wrap-around adjustable racing seat and rescue hatch in the roof – apart from the usual mandatory motorsport ancillaries.

The new Cup car also features single-piece, centre-mount race wheels wearing Michelin race slicks measuring 270mm wide at the front (up 20mm) and 310mm at the rear (up 10mm).

A new braking system comprises 380mm slotted and inner-vented steel brake rotors at the front, gripped by six-piston fixed aluminium callipers, and a four-piston calliper at the rear.

“The new 911 GT3 Cup is much easier to drive at the limit,” said Porsche works driver Timo Bernhard, who was heavily involved in new racecar’s development.

“The car is excellently balanced. The new axle geometry is enormously positive for the handling. Apart from that the new Cup 911 is great fun to drive.”

As with its predecessor, the new Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is produced on the same assembly line as the road-going 911 models on which it’s based at Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, before being shipped to Porsche’s Motorsport Centre in Weissach for racetrack set-up.

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site…