Porsche 911 GT3 (992) | PH Favourite Cars 2025

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

By Matt Bird / Saturday, 3 January 2026 / Loading comments

Cast your mind back, if at all possible, to the halcyon days of 2011. Ignore the fact it’s 15 years ago (sorry), and focus instead on the brilliant fast cars of the era. A Civic Type R still revved beyond 8,000rpm, an M3 still had a V8 in it, the Renaultsport Clio was as good as it would ever get and the 458 Italia had revolutionised the mid-engined Ferrari. People talk now of a ‘peak car’ era, from the late '00s to about 2015, and it’s pretty hard to argue with that assertion when the 2011 vintage is being discussed.

It was an important year for Porsche, too, and specifically the 911, as it was the debut year of the first 500hp GT3. That was, of course, the exceptional 4.0 GT3 RS, the Mezger’s naturally aspirated apotheosis and a 911 to celebrate for all eternity. You won’t find many arguing with the belief that peak GT3 hails from the era of peak car. Indeed, Porsche was seemingly so pleased with what it had made that, for 15 years since the 4.0, it has continued refining and reworking the 500hp GT3 idea to make it the best it can possibly be. With roughly that power output and somewhere around 1,400kg identified as a GT3 sweet spot, Porsche has toiled to keep its star 911 as close to that as possible come what may. Four-wheel steering, a double-wishbone front end and a Touring added along the way, though it never wavered far from the ideal. A noble task we can surely all be grateful for.

Because what more, really, do you need? Back at a time of 600hp Speciales and Performantes, maybe the Porsche looked a tad underpowered, but in an era of the electrified, turbocharged 920hp Temerario and 880hp 296, what would you actually want to drive on a regular basis? 500hp, 1,400kg, and six or seven gears feel more right than ever. Which Porsche has known seemingly all along: since 2011, no GT3 derivative - including RSes, Rs and S/Ts - has had less than 475hp, never more than 525hp, never revved to less than 8,600rpm and never weighed more than a tonne and a half. Because as the 4.0 RS showed, that’s just about perfect.

As we’re continually being told that naturally aspirated engines and manual gearboxes can no longer exist, so Porsche has kept the GT3 laudably close to the original ethos - chuntery idle, modest torque, wild top end and all. In a world where V8 M3s and V10 Audi R8s feel like they’re from a different planet, not just a different time, and when the only other nat-asp manuals of note are the Mazda MX-5 and Ford Mustang, the mere existence of a 9,000rpm GT3 is worthy of celebration.

And far from slavishly copying and pasting what made a 500hp 911 road racer into a new one, the ultimate 911 continues to evolve, adapt and improve as the world around it changes. Once upon a time, the idea of a GT3 with ‘BORN IN FLACHT’ logo LED door courtesy lights for £246 and £154 worth of ISOFIX fastening would have seemed like a joke; similarly, it would have been hard to imagine a Porsche 4.0-litre with almost as many catalytic converters as cylinders really making the grade.

Yet here we are, still, with a GT3 that feels shot through with Porsche Motorsport nous, as authentic as a Touristenfahrten fuelled by currywurst. Whatever obstacles are thrown Porsche’s way, be that Euro 6d or buyers who want a car as an extension of their wardrobe, it continues to deliver exhilarating GT3s. More than a quarter of a century after the first, the GT3 is as good as it’s ever been - perhaps better. And how many cars can you say that about?

Oh sure, it’s incremental. Even the staunchest Porscheophiles will tell you that. As a 992.2, this GT3 looks a bit smarter than it did, steers just a tiny bit more sweetly and makes the mandatory safety stuff simpler to turn off. But when a car has already scaled such heights as the GT3, nobody will begrudge Porsche polishing a diamond rather than attempting reinvention. In 2026, that notion is doubly nice, in fact. As well as smart: look where radical reinvention had got so many others. A decade and a half ago it seemed like you’d never need much more than a 500hp, 4.0-litre 911; now it feels beyond any doubt whatsoever.

The final drive changes for this latest version, compensating for the torque robbed by the extra cats, make an exciting car even more so - I’d love to try it on the old motor, it would surely feel like a tarmac rally car. While it means buzzing along the motorway using more revs (and fuel) than is ideal, it makes for a GT3 so alert and so alive elsewhere as to be intoxicating. And it was hardly a torpid car to begin with. Each ratio is greedily gobbled up on a wave of flat-six howl, the PDK shifts like a sequential, and any run all the way 9,000rpm savoured as the rare treat it now is. For all the noise about allocations and overs and contrast stitching, this undoubtedly remains a GT3 at its raw, absorbing, enthralling best.

And that’s just the engine. The chassis is equally epic. Like the powertrain, and as a GT3 should, it needs concentration and commitment to get the very best from it, and the experience absolutely repays in kind. The traction and stability control assume you have some idea of what to do, likewise the steering and suspension assume you want to know about the road underneath; the brakes don’t like being cold much, either. It’s immersive at all times, yet somehow stops short of being totally overwhelming. You’ll drive to Wales without thinking about it - this is still a 911, after all - only to realise when the stop-start kicks in how much of a racket there’s been all around - and how loud you’ve had the speakers turned up…

Then, when you’re in Wales and there’s a storm, a GT3 is like a four-wheeled bothy, apparently built for nothing but withstanding the elements. Honestly, as Nic C has already mentioned, huge amounts of the driving for this shoot were not fun at all, but the way the GT3 shrugged off appalling weather only made me admire it more. It forded through puddles the size of boating lakes, it gripped where no car on these tyres should have, and didn’t scrape a craggy bit of road once. Locals suggested turning back, seeing the ride height and the gold. Little did they know 911s are built with constant use in mind. This is a car capable of a seven-minute Nurburgring lap that also serves as a brilliant storm shelter.

As so many iconic nameplates move away from what made us love them in the first place, it’s a joy to find a GT3 so tangibly redolent of the past - yet modern in all the ways that count. Despite everything, here’s a GT3 that looks like a GT3 should, revs like a GT3 should, sounds like a GT3 should and drives like a GT3 should. It’s pretty raw, it’s quite loud, and it’s undeniably firm (the clue’s in the name and all that), yet you’ll find any excuse to drive it at every given opportunity. Even in a downpour. What it requires of you is more than amply rewarded, just as GT3s always have done. Only now you can have one with an Exclusive Manufaktur leather interior, should you wish. The details may have changed, and perhaps the customer base as well, but the fundamentals of a GT3 remain as glorious as ever. Hopefully, 4.0-litre, 500hp 911s have at least another 15 years in them. As has been the case since 2011, sports cars don’t come much better.

SPECIFICATION | 2025 PORSCHE 911 GT3 (992.2)

Engine: 3,996cc, flat-six
Transmission: 7-speed PDK/6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 510@8,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 332@6,250rpm
0-62mph: 3.4 seconds (3.9 manual)
Top speed: 193mph (194mph Touring)
Weight: 1,439kg (DIN, 1,420kg with Weissach/Lightweight)
MPG: 20.5-20.6
CO2: 310-312g/km (WLTP)
Price: £158,200 (as standard; price as tested £218,650)

Honourable mention | Ford Mustang Dark Horse

While some of Ford’s decisions elsewhere continue to baffle, its commitment to making the Mustang the best it can be is heartening. The Dark Horse really is the best of the breed, too, retaining all of the standard ‘Stang’s easygoing charm as well as injecting some grit and purpose to the driving experience. Its combination of V8 muscle, engaging chassis and menacing good looks means I can’t recommend it heartily enough - the Dark Horse is an undeniable glimmer of Blue Oval hope.