New 911 GT3 is quickest manual ever at the 'ring
The six-speed 992 goes sub-seven in remarkable lap. It's not one to miss...
Porsche’s obsession with - and dominance of - the million or so corners that make up the Nordschleife is just one of those things. It speaks to a Germanic preoccupation with numbers for one thing, certainly, but also a wider industry fascination for benchmarking - especially where very expensive, circuit-developed cars are concerned. No variant of the 911 GT3 is deemed to have earned its spurs if it hasn’t a) trounced its predecessor at the Nurburgring, or b) beaten the latest version of whatever model Porsche considers a direct rival. This is the way of things.
As a result, with every fraction of a second precious, Porsche doesn’t typically concern itself with advertising the lap times of lesser derivatives - especially those that do without a PDK. Even a 911 as unquestionably great as the current S/T did not get an official score (even though GT supremo Andreas Preuninger conceded that Porsche had recorded one, just for its own satisfaction). But with the six-speed version of the very latest 992 GT3 as popular as ever - “and more and more often we are asked by these customers how fast a 911 GT3 with manual transmission would be on the Nordschleife” - the manufacturer finally opted to give Jörg Bergmeister’s left leg a job to do.
Unsurprisingly, the result has less to do with satisfying buyer curiosity than it did with claiming yet another title. Being the fastest manual production car at the Nurburgring is exactly the caption you want under a picture of the 992 GT3, a claim made all the more real by the fact that the presence of a clutch pedal did not prevent the car from clocking a 6:56.294 lap. Which is startling not just because it ushers the manual GT3 into the hallowed sub-seven-minute club, but because it proved faster than the 826hp Mustang GTD that Ford sent to the Rhineland in December. It’s 3.633 seconds quicker than a 992.1 GT3 with a PDK.
"The new 911 GT3 inspires even more confidence at the limit than the previous model. I was faster in almost every corner," said Bergmeister. "We learned a lot from the 911 GT3 RS, especially with the chassis. The car is much more stable on bumps and over the curbs. And thanks to the eight-per-cent-shorter gear ratio, there is noticeably more drive from the rear axle when accelerating with the same engine power. Even if it would have been a few seconds faster with the seven-speed PDK – with the six-speed manual gearbox I definitely had more to do on the fast lap – and it was therefore even more fun.”
There you have it in a nutshell. Of course, the nutshell also featured the optional Weissach package - which is priced from £19,531 if you want the roll cage - and the gluey Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 R tyres, and the lap occurred in what seems like almost perfect conditions (an ambient temperature of 12 degrees, with track temperature at 27 degrees) but let’s take nothing away from a car that also does without the more sophisticated electronically controlled limited-slip diff. Nor should we take anything away from Bergmeister; it’s a pleasure to watch the man work.
Interestingly, Porsche declined to name the ‘competitor’ it nudged into second place. "When we decided to set the official lap time of the new 911 GT3 with manual transmission, we naturally looked at who was at the top of the leaderboard," reckoned Preuninger - like his memory needed refreshing. The unofficial 7:01.300 set by Lance David Arnold in a crowdfunded Dodge Viper ACR has likely ticked Porsche off for the better part of a decade. Finally, the natural order has been restored.
A bit like these average club level golfers that keep playing because they hit a couple of great drives and sink a couple of tricky puts each round.
And that’s what I aim for in my gt4 each drive. A couple of amazing corners and a few fantastic heel and toes, and a couple of blasts to the redline on well sighted plod free straights.
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