First Drive: 2021 Porsche 911 GT3 Touring

The 992 GT3’s availability with the Touring package was never in question after the success of its predecessor. What is new with it, and what GT boss, Andreas Preuninger admitted to back on our prototype ride-along last year, is that the GT3 Touring is now offered with the manual as previously, as well as the PDK. That gives those wanting the less overt style of a de-winged GT3, with the ease and additional ratio that the PDK paddle-shift brings, as well as the more sophisticated electronically controlled, rather than mechanically of the manual, locking differential.

The Dolomite Silver PDK Touring, and the Jet Black Metallic manual are a paragon of dignified moderation. Both feature optional, worthwhile, fixed-back full bucket seats and PCCB (Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes), with the key difference between them being how you select the gears.

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What’s undeniably appealing is that to the uninitiated these two GT3 Tourings could pass cursory glances as mere Carreras. That’s a sizeable part of their appeal, and arguably a greater performance enhancer on the road than a ‘look at me’ big wing sitting out back, restricting your view backwards.

The simplicity of the optional seats removes adjustment ambiguity and they are cosseting, clutching and connecting in a manner that finds the other seat choices wanting.

There’s no Clubsport option with the Touring, so if you’re after a bolt-in steel cage to hang some six-point racing harnesses off, then you’ll need a regular GT3. The Touring retains everything else its winged relation has, though. It really is a case of wing on, or off.

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It's a multi-faceted experience, requiring skill, planning and patience to allow it to exhibit its very best

It’s academic that the manual GT3 Touring raises the 0-100km/h time by 0.5 of a second because 3.9 seconds is plenty quick enough, while getting to double that, in its German homeland (or on a track, naturally), in just 11.9 seconds isn’t exactly lacking, either. It’s a question of useability; the GT3’s trick has always been the visceral engagement it brings, everywhere, and the manual transmission, then, should add to that.

Spotting a gap in traffic, the manual GT3 Touring tears around its rev-counter ferociously. A prudent quick shift to second at around 6000rpm is the order of the moment because the instruments aren’t reading that the engine’s fully up to temperature and to wring it out to its 9000rpm maximum would be detrimental to the motorsport engine hung out back, however great the temptation to do so might be.

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Even short-shifting here, the GT3 Touring is wickedly quick, the 375kW engine exhibiting a low and mid-range muscularity that’s hugely impressive given its natural aspiration and its massive enthusiasm for revs. The peak 470Nm torque figure is equally remarkable here, but modest among turbocharged alternatives. A standard, entry-level Carrera’s 3.0-litre turbocharged flat-six manages 450Nm between 1950-5000rpm. The GT3’s 470Nm peak has an element of delayed gratification, coming at a headier 6100rpm and it’s nowhere near as abundant in its spread.

At no point does it feel like it’s short of go, though. It’s a very quick car when you’re merely touring, and outrageously fast when you’re exploring the rev counter’s sweep between 6000-9000rpm. The fact the engine needs to be driven is a huge part of its appeal, it's a multi-faceted experience, requiring skill, planning and patience to allow it to exhibit its very best.

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The richness in the experience is that singularity, its undeniable focus and the rewards that exploiting it brings. The GT3 is no less visceral and engaging in its latest 992 form, and even more so when sampled with a third pedal and a tactile gearshift that’s a joy to guide through the six ratios.

The suspension, a cause of consternation among some at the GT3’s launch is unchanged over the winged car, the Touring receiving no concessions to comfort, the set-up identical, and feeling so on the road. That’s genuinely not a complaint, here, as I never took issue with the taut suspension of the winged car. If you do find it too busy, perhaps one of the other nineteen 911s Porsche offers might suit you better? The brake pedal provides a perfect platform from which to roll your foot off to blip the throttle for downshifts, the Touring happy to do this for you with its autoblip, but, likewise, allowing you to switch it off via the configurable drive modes. Do so.

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That it’s so easy is demonstrative of its development by drivers, for drivers, the 911 always a car that exhibits excellent weighting and precise feedback and response across every facet of its controls, but the GT3 adds more. The key GT3 differentiator being the double-wishbone suspension on the front axle, it adding an immediacy and accuracy to the nose that only increases its appeal behind the wheel and its precision on the road.

The PDK’s got a tough job to do then, but within yards of driving it, it’s making a very strong case for itself. There’s ease, though, so too is there an even greater sense of urgency with it, be it throttle response, or the speediness of gear selection, the PDK is just quicker. On the very same roads it immediately carries greater pace, is demonstrably faster, everywhere, because driving it is less busy.

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Such is the alertness of the front axle that shifting in the manual can see slight movements at the wheel result in corresponding shifts at the nose. The PDK is more resolute in its line because there’s no need to move your hands from the steering.

With the PDK, opportunities are greater and, as a result, the overall speed tends higher. It feels more eager, it goads you to drive it harder, quicker, revealing more of its character earlier and allowing the GT3 Touring’s other facets more space to breathe, for, arguably, a more rounded experience. Certainly, 9000rpm is more readily achieved, with the incredible pace it brings, backed by that soundtrack.

That both are even possible is something to be celebrated, and, really, there are no wrong answers when buying a GT3, absolutely none. I’d err towards the Touring simply because it appeals to my ideals of restraint. I’d be unlikely to ever track it anyway, and I’d take the manual... because manual.

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2021 Porsche 911 GT3 with Touring Package specifications