Tuesday 12th September 2017

Porsche 911 GT3 Touring - Frankfurt 2017

The most desirable 991 GT3 yet?

---

"We are not a hedge fund", declared Andreas Preuninger before the reveal of the new GT3. "We are a company that produces cars, we live because we sell cars and we have to make a profit to go on." An obvious point maybe, but the hidden meaning seemed clear: more Motorsport 911s were coming, and they could well be influenced by the 911 R...

That ass!

First there was the return of the manual GT3 and now there's this, a 911 GT3 Touring. A car which, to all intents and purposes, appears to be a 911 R. Without the stripes.

In fact it could even be better - perish the thought - as this Touring uses the new 4.0-litre GT3 engine, with its stiffer crank, new intakes and 9,000rpm redline (remember the R 4.0-litre goes to a paltry 8,500). Power is 500hp, torque is 339lb ft, and the top speed is 196mph.

It gets better too, as the GT3 Touring is manual and manual only. Yep, honest. With a mechanical limited-slip differential too. The 'box is said to offer "particularly sporting shift characteristics", with 62mph coming up in 3.9 seconds.

And doesn't it look fabulous? Porsche says the GT3 Touring Package is designed for "enthusiasts who particularly value an understated appearance combined with a high level of driving enjoyment", so the GT3 fixed spoiler is gone, replaced by an automatically extending one. Otherwise the body is identical, but the aero underneath is tweaked.

Knob shot

Moreover, there are certain spec choices and options that reflect the Touring's (slightly) less hardcore remit. So you can't have the Clubsport package or the interior Alcantara, the cabin here a little more luxurious with leather on the wheel, gearstick and headrests. The seat centres are - you might want to sit down here - black fabric as standard. Porsches states however that "virtually all" other GT3 options are available, including the ceramic brakes, front axle lift and LED lights. Finally, if you want to get rid of the silver exterior trim that marks out the Touring, there's a 'Black Exterior Touring Package' that kinda does what it say on the tin. If Dan's experience with the F-Type was anything to go by, that's probably a box worth ticking.

Talk of options brings us conveniently to the Touring's price: £111,802, or exactly what the standard GT3 costs. Whether you will actually have opportunity to buy one remains another matter, though the news of - seemingly - more manual GT3s in the world sounds rather excellent to us. So, standard or Touring GT3 - which will it be?

[Oakman]

Oh Yes Please !

[haggishunter]

Woof!

[greggy50]

Lovely all sold out already I assume?

[rb26]

Bought a 991R for £500k? Keep the receipt did you?

[greggy50]

rb26 said:

Bought a 991R for £500k? Keep the receipt did you?

Serves people right for treating cars as investments rather than actually driving them...

[booones]

Are rear seats available?!

[Matt Bird]

greggy50 said:

Lovely all sold out already I assume?

No! Official line from Porsche PR is that the cars are available. 2017 allocation probably gone but the car isn't limited production and will continue to be made. Of course that doesn't guarantee getting one but they're not spoken for, either.


Matt

[roland82]

It seems like Porsche maybe listening to its customers...

[rb26]

greggy50 said:

Serves people right for treating cars as investments rather than actually driving them...

It does appear that the modern 911 bubble is stabilising a bit. I believe a GT3RS 4.0 from Germany sold for sub £290,000 in a recent auction and a GT2RS (same country) for under £210,000. Things might move south more strongly once interest rates increase.

[ZX10R NIN]

911R customers might be slightly miffed but I can see their values being overly affected.

[wab172uk]

If you paid £400k+ for a 911R, then you'll be pretty annoyed.

If you bought a 911R new and still own it and drive it, you may be slightly miffed that it's not now exclusive as it once was, but Hey ho. You still have an excellent car that you didn't pay silly money for.

However, this is yet another 911 that most people won't be able to buy new, as yet again the speculators will somehow get in first, meaning they'll flip it straight away making a huge profit.

[av185]

wab172uk said:

again the speculators will somehow get in first,

Or the owner/drivers.

[Sine Metu]

Fantastic car of course but am I the only one who things they've taken something away from the GT3 here. Just a little bit of the special GT3 history. GT3's were always the track focussed car with aero. A touring GT3? They could have called this something else.

[hondansx]

Whilst I agree that they make far too few, you have to appreciate that it does make sense to have loyal Porsche owners to have first dibs. However, you'd like to think if someone got an allocation for a 911 R or a GT3 RS, they would be overlooked for this car in place of someone who missed out previously.

[patch5674]

God that interior looks awful without touch of leather on the dash.

Also, fabric seats are starting to take the piss a bit.

Although this is a wider trend - apparently millennials (of which I am) don't want leather in cars. That is why the Velar launched with some sort of 'technical fabric' as the standard interior.

[stuckmojo]

The perfect car.

Am I right in expecting it to be impossible to buy? (for people who don't want to fellate sales managers or buy serial diesel ste SUVs)?

I hope they make very many and that somehow customers manage to not settle for other 911s and want this alone and the factory will deliver.

In the end, how much more can this cost to make than an 991s? R&D is done anyway.

[em177]

These things are getting pretty polished aren't they.

Take the chrome window surrounds off and that's almost perfect.

[Krikkit]

stuckmojo said:

The perfect car.

Am I right in expecting it to be impossible to buy? (for people who don't want to fellate sales managers or buy serial diesel ste SUVs)?

Yep, you don't get a mythical brand status by letting everyone with 110k buy one - force them to buy half a dozen models beforehand!

[Ursicles]

"We are not a hedge fund" ... but you still cant buy one unless you run one.

[g7jhp]

Looks great. Get some hounds tooth seats.

Can you spec rear seats being a Touring?

Be interesting to see if 996 and 997 GT3 (especially Comfort spec) owners chop in their cars for a 991.2 GT3 Touring.

More vehicles in the marketplace can only be good for enthusiasts.