So we're giving Porsche's 997 GT3 a bit of an emotional send-off and will be updating this diary/blog on a daily basis with what we get up to. Follow us on Twitter on
for more regular updates on what we're up to and if you see us out and about give us a wave! Keep scrolling down for the latest instalment...
Now, much as we like to portray ourselves as alpha male, pie-eating powerfully built types who could stamp on a puppy and not shed a tear we do have an emotional side. So when we heard Porsche was on the verge of de-fleeting its long-serving 997 GT3 press car ahead of its
991 replacement
arriving we had to get it booked in for one last tearful farewell. And, um, enjoy the last grapple with an Alcantara-sheathed manual shifter in a GT3. Um, moving on. We've done that conversation to death already. Haven't we?*
It seems we're not the only ones to beg for one last go either, 911 GB having a busy final few weeks on the press fleet.
Now, when we made the call there was a sense of urgency about us getting the booking and we did ask our man at Porsche if we are actually the last ones to have the car before it disappears into the dealer network. "I suppose for the purposes of poetic licence you could suggest that and not be entirely inaccurate," came the curious response.
OK, let's roll with that. We're officially (unless subsequently corrected) the last grubby hacks to drive this car before it goes on sale. Harris has driven the new one and we'll accept the arguments that the 991 GT3 is objectively 'better' while maintaining the possibly illogical and probably overly emotive attachment to the one that's slower, more difficult to drive and ... painted in our favourite Porsche colour. And that's it really. If you're looking for hard-headed analysis this won't be the place for it, though you can look at our GT3 market watch and timeline for that. Here we're going for the heartstrings though, sharing in the bittersweet final fling before separation. God, the opening drum fill to that Whitney Houston track we mentioned earlier can't be far off...
Anyway. Whoever the lucky owner is we promise we'll look after it and, in its last week as a press car, try and celebrate its passing out of our world and into the real one in suitable style. Hence daily updates to follow with what we've been up to. Give us a wave if you see us out and about.
*We have had this conversation already. But can't promise the topic won't come up in the next few days. Apologies in advance.
So our first day with the GT3 mainly involved low speed trundling round London en route to an Oktoberfest event with BMW. And something of a clutch leg workout into the bargain.
Am I ready to eat my words and bow to the gods of PDK? Am I hell. I'm far too stubborn and curmudgeonly for that. This is good pain! Though, frankly, it's not an easy car in traffic. But the 997 GT3 isn't an easy car full stop and that's one of the reasons I love it so.
It's a bit nasty and brutal, it sounds like a bag of spanners at tickover and mercilessly punishes even millimetric failures in clutch/rev balance with a nasty flare of slip or a sudden and embarrassing stall. Still, nothing brightens the day of pedestrians and fellow motorists more than a berk in a bewinged and bright blue Porsche spluttering to a halt in the middle of a box junction and fumbling desperately for the key. I like to think I cheered a few folk up at my own expense there.
Leg pump aside it's perfectly happy pottering around, once rolling. I spent two hours below 30mph and 3,000rpm and still loved it. And then joined the M1 and remembered what happens beyond 4,000rpm. Even in third very naughty numbers appear underscored by lots of fabulous induction and exhaust noise, a guilty giggle and then a hasty short-shift to sixth and back to a jiggly legal limit cruise home and an indulgent minute outside my house in the midnight calm, door open, still in the driver's seat and drinking in the tick contracting metal and smells of warm oil and brakes.
Today then the GT3 has been a 'normal' car doing normal stuff like commuting. But it's a crime to have it resting for too long. Tomorrow we're going for a drive...
So. 12 hours of driving. 500-odd miles. A fair smear of grime on 911 GB's Riviera Blue paint. And my slightly obsessional love of this car undiminished one bit.
We - that is hired hand Danny and I - set out at six this morning onto a dark, rainy and busy M25. Hardly the most promising start. But incredibly as the Severn Bridge loomed into view and dawn broke there were blue skies ahead of us as we reached the valleys.
The schlep up through Ogmore Vale seemed to take an age and then, bang, all of a sudden we were up amongst it, choppy tarmac, suicidal sheep, looming crags and darkening skies. Yep. Wales. Danny was driving at this point and the easy conversation along the M4 was replaced by thin lips and a look of fierce concentration. The GT3 takes a firm hand on roads like this but the first run up the valley with me roadside taking pictures was a lesson in quite how loud the thing is, flat-six booming up the valley, revs flaring as the car lifted over the bumps and lingering long after he'd disappeared from sight. Magic.
From there we headed north to Brecon along smoother, wider and better sighted roads more suited to the GT3's pace. A B-road car it is not - you need space to let it really off the leash.
And then, two or three hours in, that moment where it all clicks, the ratio of fluffed gearchanges reduces from one in three to one in 20, steering inputs become more precise and keeping it on the boil above 4,000rpm becomes the default operating zone. Really, really magic.
Our route back across Herefordshire and then the Cotswolds had plenty more too, traffic easily disposed of, clear sections of roads less travelled taken at a more realistic pace but still massively rewarding.
Yes, a good day. A selection of pics below too.
Question now is do I clean it before Matt comes to pick it up for Porsche Sunday Service or should I leave it with its roadtrip patina?
What lengths would you go to in order to find an excuse for a bit of a spin? Tipping away perfectly good milk, for instance, to discover all the local shops were 'sold out' and mean an extended drive around in search of cow juice?
Best innocent face time...
In all honesty today has been a quieter day for the GT3, if not for my neighbours. Quantity compared with yesterday's quality but I discovered the metal-sided railway bridge leading up the hill out of town does a very good echo chamber thing for amplifying a GT3 exhaust. Not that it needs it.
This was my parting shot to a 997-owning mate who popped round in one of those startling coincidences that happens when everyone knows you've got a GT3 in. I advised caution, suggesting unless he was willing to upgrade he might want to avoid going to close to 911 GB, let alone go for a spin.
Tomorrow it's an early morning handover to Matt to take it to our Porsche Sunday Service. Consensus has been to leave it with its Welsh grime intact. So that's how it'll arrive. With a little addition from me on the back bumper...
Oh, and if you needed further convincing of why this car gets under the skin check out this video from our colleagues at Autocar. Never raced or rallied, etc...
Blimey, you're a hardy old bunch, aren't you? Despite abysmal weather, Paul and I were really heartened to see so many of you make it to yesterday's Sunday Service. They wouldn't happen without you, so thanks!
Now then, the GT3. As a 911 virgin, I was praying for dry weather; the prospect of driving my first rear-engined Porsche in damp conditions with 430hp and Pilot Sport Cups rather consumed me with dread.
So the gentle pitter patter on the windows that accompanied my 5-30 alarm wasn't especially welcome. At Dan's, keys were exchanged, warnings were given and there I was; in a GT3, in the dark, in the rain. And terrified. Enough has been eulogised about 911s by writers who are vastly superior drivers to me, so that doesn't need repeating. What I hope to convey what it's like to drive a 911 for the first time on all kinds of roads in a day of incessant rain.
Out towards the Dream Drive route, it's the immediacy that's so overwhelming. The throttle response is instant, the brake travel minimal, the shift short and deliberate. You know the steering is wonderful.
The first time I left-foot brake, the car nearly comes to a halt. Initial attempts to blip downchanges result in one wild flare of revs, one slip off the brake and one fourth instead of second. But be precise and things start to flow. Now I was nowhere near half of the car's ability given the conditions, but hitting a few sweet downshifts is a joyous experience.
Then the scary 911 came. Braking too hard on bumpy surfaces of course sees the nose sniffing out ruts and cambers. Feeling the nose lighten over crests, when it's such an unfamiliar sensation, is rather frightening too...
But those concerns vanish when you find a straightish, dryish stretch of tarmac and go. The savagery with which the GT3 spins above 4,000rpm is exhilarating. It howls as the needle begins to point right then, just as you think valves might start bouncing in your rear view, the change-up light flashes somewhere near 8,500rpm and it begins again. Wow.
There should be a mention for driving the GT3 on a wet, busy M25 to Brands but, frankly, the experience is too mortifying to share.
Monday will see 911 GB head along to the Ace Cafe for a meet; see you there!
Matt
[Sunday Service pics courtesy of Darren Teagles. Thanks very much!]
After a hectic weekend, 911 GB only covered only around 35 miles on Monday going to PHHQ, then the Ace Cafe and back. Oh, and a few extra miles of just driving around because, well, wouldn't you?
As Dan mentioned, the GT3 isn't at its most inspiring in traffic. The weighty controls that garner such confidence when you're pushing on become a slight PITA when the traffic is shunting along below 10mph. But this is an observation, not a complaint. Compromise is the key word here; cursing it at low speed would be churlish given how thrilling it is at speed.
We haven't mentioned PDK for a bit, have we? Having now driven a manual GT3 and followed the debate for while, I'd like to contribute a couple of thoughts. Nomex is at the ready...
Yes, you have less to do with paddles and no clutch. That's just a fact. But that will mean involving ourselves in different ways, by left-foot braking for example. And let's not forget the business case either. If every single GT3 customer loved their manual and told Porsche that, would they have contemplated the PDK-only 991? Manufacturers have to respond to demand, after all.
Ferrari stopped offering manuals as customers weren't buying them, and you only have to look at the proliferation of PDK-specced Porsches to see the popularity there. You could argue (I would agree) that the GT3 should be the purist's choice, but I think the percentage of genuine customers who would want a manual is, sadly, far lower than we would like to think. This is just my opinion, please don't take it as any more, but I would of course be fascinated to hear what else you have to say!
So after a couple of days away I returned to the car park a bit bleary and jet lagged to find ... the GT3 still there. Eh?
Maybe Porsche had forgotten about it! Maybe it was ours to keep!
Neither was true, obviously. And not long after a chap who was very nice indeed but looked as if, needs must, he could get a little more 'persuasive' in his task of recovering Porsches from undeserving and lovestruck hacks turned up with a truck and loaded 911 GB for the last time. I had to linger as he prepared the truck, the GT3 ticking over lumpily and angrily in the dank autumnal air. Even at a standstill the thing sounds malevolent and spoiling for a fight and I wanted to take in every last moment.
It was a real privilege to have this final loan with 911 GB before it loses that plate and goes out into the real world and into the hands of a new owner. One, I'm guessing, who probably won't be lending it out to the likes of us on a weekly basis, more's the pity. I hope whoever it is drives the wheels off it and loves every minute - certainly everyone within the hack community I've spoken with in the last couple of weeks has had that same wistful expression when talking about this particular car. Indeed, I've never known its like - 911 GB has obviously got under the skin of all those who've driven it which, over the last few years, has included pretty much everyone in the industry.
And though I've not yet driven the 991 GT3 I'm very glad to have had this opportunity to inform my impression of it properly with a last go in the car it replaces. Everyone I know who has assures me it's as mighty as you'd hope and, truly, moves the game on. It had to, but after another go with 911 GB I'm not sure how it can or whether it needed to!
Anyway, enough wistful musings. Farewell 911 GB, it's been fun!
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