Porsche 911 GT3 2021 Review - International

Porsche really does make pricing easy for its new 911 GT3. Easy if you have the money, that is. Here goes: the price for the 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 six-speed manual is $369,600 plus on-road costs but including a three-year, unlimited-km factory warranty and Porsche Assist roadside assistance.

If you want the PDK auto version that will be $369,600 plus ORCs. Then of course there’s the optional Clubsport Package that includes a roll-cage, fire extinguisher and six-point harness for the driver – at no additional charge.

And if you want the GT3 Touring variant with additional creature comforts and minus the massive rear wing, that’ll also be $369,600 plus ORCs.

There are other options that will require you to fork out more dollars, such as the carbon-fibre reinforced plastic roof, but for prices on those you’ll have to have a little chat with your dealer.

Things don’t end there though, as there's also the Porsche 911 GT3 70 Years Porsche Australia Edition (try getting that on a badge). Fortunately, all 25 examples are distinguished by small Australia flag badges and a long list of other equipment, including a special colour of Fish Silver grey metallic, the same colour as the first Porsche 356 imported into Australia in 1951. For this piece of history, you’ll be forking out $494,300 plus ORCs.

As with most cars out of Zuffenhausen, the best bit of safety kit you can have in the Porsche 911 GT3 is a really good driver.

Keeping you stuck to the road are Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tyres on wheels containing six-piston brake callipers clamping down onto discs with a diameter that is now increased to 408mm. Carbon-ceramics are available as an option. For a GT3 driver, these are all the essential bits of kit, but of course there’s much more.

Driver settings, selected through a dial mounted on the steering wheel include Normal, Sport, Sport Plus and Track, all of which release the nanny controls a little bit more before you get to maximum attack, turn everything off and wonder about the terms and conditions on your life insurance. It has Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus with an electronic rear diff lock. There are also plenty of airbags.

Technology includes the Porsche Communication Management system, known to the rest of us as touch-screen infotainment, which includes navigation, Apple CarPlay and the ability to stream banging tracks or good old radio stations while on the track.

There’s climate control and digital screens either side of the central speedometer in the instrument cluster. It might also have cruise control, but we didn’t drive it on the road and, really, it’s a GT3 so no-one cares.

It’s also as close to a Carrera Cup race car as you can get, so let's get down to the details – starting with the fact that the new GT3 is still powered by a pure, normally-aspirated 4.0-litre six-cylinder boxer. No turbos here folks.

It pumps out 375kW at 8400rpm – just over 7kW more than the last generation – and torque is up 10Nm to 470Nm at 6100rpm, pushed through the rear wheels, of course.

Maximum engine speed is a heady 9000 rpm and it sounds sensational. Other numbers include a claimed 0-100km/h time of 3.4 seconds for the PDK version and 3.9sec for the manual, with top speeds of 318 and 320km/h respectively.

The chassis is basically the same as that used in the Carrera Cup cars, plus the new GT3 ditches the MacPherson front suspension in favour of a double-wishbone axle that comes almost straight from the 911 RSR.

There’s a five-link rear axle with new shocks that Porsche says offer a better balance between driving comfort and track performance. For the first time, the GT3 also gets rear-wheel steering, allowing the back wheels to turn up to two degrees.

At this point we also have to discuss the aerodynamics, all of which not only contribute to a drag coefficient of 0.34Cd but increase downforce by 50 per cent over the previous generation.

All components are set at the factory, but some can be adjusted manually. The most obvious of these is that rear wing, which, when moved to its performance position, can increase downforce by 150 per cent at 200km/h.

A Porsche 911 GT3. A technical racetrack on the northern coast of Wales. Fantastic. Except it’s chucking it down, really chucking it down.

If this were a Carrera Cup car a crew would be switching it to full wets. The journalist who needed lots of sideways shots for video was clearly having a fantastic time.

Not surprisingly we tiptoed out of the pit lane, getting to grips with the GT3 and with the conditions. While the rain kept coming, gradually the confidence in the car grew and quickly it became clear that it was a bad idea to look at the speedo. We were not going to be setting record lap times today, but we were going to get the most we could from the GT3.

The driving position is a little awkward with a helmet, mainly because the seat backrest can only be changed with the use of a toolkit. That pit crew would be useful right now. Still, everything else is spot on, although I could do with slightly longer fingers for the paddles behind the steering wheel.

Fortunately, the PDK gearbox obliged my every request, hammering into the next gear when demands were made and allowing for more gentle transitions when the surface was at its slipperiest.

The steering is incredibly accurate, typically Porsche with a level of communication that inspires confidence with every turn. The Alcantara-clad wheel feels perfectly designed and engineered.

Throttle response is excellent, allowing for my right foot to deliver power with almost surgical precision as the revs rise and the boxer engine creates an intoxicating soundtrack.

No surgeon wants to slip though, and the conditions see a combination of aquaplaning understeer followed in the next corner by a bit of playful oversteer. It’s more pronounced in Normal mode, but switching to Sport and Sport Plus not only hands more control over to the driver but it means the computer can relax a bit and not be so panicky.

The brakes are tremendous, scrubbing off speed with very little effort and allowing the speedo to climb higher and higher on every arrival at the end of the downhill stretch.

Despite the conditions, the GT3 is impressing, making the point that this is no fair-weather sports car. Granted there's a fine line between bravery and stupidity of course, with no margin for error on the back straight as you turn to go uphill, crossing a river of water as you do so.

I’m not going to lie, there was a sigh of relief as I returned to the pit lane. It had been a little white-knuckle out there, but the GT3 took it all in its stride.

There’s no doubt that we would have gotten much more out of the new Porsche 911 GT3 had the conditions been slightly better on the day, but it showed us enough of its character to demonstrate that it has all the ability we expected of it.

Every component is set up in a way that is not only communicative but precise, able to instill confidence even in tricky conditions. Having driven previous generations of the GT3, the latest takes all the lessons learned from them and emerges as a formidable package indeed.

How much does the 2021 Porsche 911 GT3 cost?
Price: $369,600 (plus on-road costs)
Available: October, orders now open
Engine: 4.0-litre, six-cylinder petrol
Output: 375kW/470Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual or seven-speed PDK
Fuel: 12.4L/100km (NEDC Combined)
CO2: 283g/km (NEDC Combined)
Safety rating: Not available