I was never a Porsche guy in my life. I was a Beemer fanboy, I loved the M3s, M4s and the big boy M5s. I started loving cars with a BMW, something that I have mentioned earlier in one of my posts, I started loving cars with the game Need for Speed Most Wanted. Yes that game has help me seed a lot of interest in cars. I fell in love with the M3 GTR E46 that was featured on the Need For Speed Most Wanted 2005 game. That engine, it kept screaming at my ears ever since I have heard it for the first time. That is something that I love like an LFA, one of the best sounding cars ever made in the whole universe. I fell in love with BMW ever since. Until they took the wraps off of the new G80 and G82 generation M3 and M4, which looked like it was from the parallel universe where BMW made ugly cars. That made me revisit my time driving the Cayman GTS back in the need for speed times. It did the job of a starter motor turning my ignition towards Porsche cars. Need For Speed also has a few more Porsches featured, like the 911 Carrera S, the baby model of the 911 series, the beast himself, the Carrera GT, a 930, a Turbo S and a 911 GT2. Even though there were a bunch of Porsche’s I was literally in love with the Cayman S. It was good looking and one of the best performing cars on the lot. I didn’t even had a thought about changing the car until I was against the last boss, Razor himself. No don't think that I have lost the love towards BMW, still the M3 GTR, M5 Competition are some of my favorites, honestly.
It really helped me to grow as a Porsche guy. As mentioned above, G80 and G82 M3 and M4s looked trash and they kind of ruined the original BMW vibe that we used to get from the previous and other generation M3s and M4s. That gave me the push to turn to Porsche’s. I will admit the fact that I was a bit late in understanding my mistake, but I will make it clear that the M3 GTR is still the best car on the lot. There are a few circumstances which took me to Porsche and some of their qualities as well. First of all, BMW was at the time and is still pushing for the electric conversion which is absolutely unnecessary, and their design evolution is one of the biggest best to worst transformation I have ever seen. It is still a question how they turned out to be one of the worst designers after ruling the whole department for a few decades like it was a walk in the park. On the other hand, Porsche understood the value of petrol cars and the fun they could bring out. Those specific driving elements the enthusiasts crave for like the feel, sound of the engine and pleasing design. During the pandemic situation, when a sudden out break to urge the world to switch to electric vehicles happened, Porsche still gave value to the petrol heads. They worked for ways to sustain internal combustion engines and did whatever they could to find a perfect alternative for fossil fuels.
Slowly but surely Porsche began growing on me. The interest grew from Cayman to 911 and from the normal 911 to 911 GT versions, and now one of my all time favorites is the 911 GT3, the one car that can be the mild beauty on the road and a wild beast on the track. Porsche engineering and their design philosophy which has been almost the same ever since the beginning are some of the factors that made me go to them as well. As of now, the Porsche Carrera GT, 918 Spyder, 911 GT3 and 911 GT3 RS are some of my all time favorite cars. In fact it took me a while to realize that BMWs are good But Porsche’s are better. So today I am going to write about one of my favorite cars, one of my dream car as well, the Porsche 911 GT3, one of the best all rounder cars in the market right now. You can expect a little bit of biased statements since I am a huge Porsche fan so bare with that please. Speaking of the GT3, one of my idols, automotive journalist Vivek Venugopal is a die hard Porsche fan, he has play quiet a bit of role in making me a Porsche guy as well. His video in his channel featuring Kerala’s fastest Doctor’s, Dr Nirmal Krishnan, who is a doctor by profession and petrol head by passion, 992 GT3 had me on the edge of the seat and I watched it for the nth time before getting into this article.
Enough storytelling about myself, lets talk about 911 GT3. 911 the name that comes to our mind as soon as we hear the name Porsche. Even with a dozen of other models in their line up, if there is a specific model to be picked that makes the company what it is, it is definitely the 911. And even the 911 has its own sub divisions like the 911 Carrera, Targa, Turbo, GT3 and the GT3 RS, the godfather. Even though the GT3 RS is said to be the godfather, for a normal guy who want to enjoy the beauty and the beast I think it is better for him to choose the GT3, because it is an absolute animal in track and is an adequate daily too. The 911 GT3 was introduced for the first time as a homologation car for the 911 sports car which was the high performance race car from Porsche that came into production back in 1973, starting with the 911 Carrera RS. The 911 GT3 is one of those cars which announces the heritage of Porsche in the field of motorsports, starting from the Porsche Carrera Cup, GT3 Cup, WRC, Dakar Rally and many more endurance racing championships. Rather than just participation, Porsche have the proper bragging rights over the whole scenario of racing. Those achievements are clearly described on one of my articles which is dedicated to the company, “Living the Porsche Life a Short Story”. When the GT3 was introduced to the streets as a homologation car, Porsche made a beast out of it, it was the perfect car for the enthusiast who could not even think about racing in the track and absorbing the whole feel and for those who could not afford the God Father as well.
Porsche bought the beast into production back in 1999 and started assembling the car in their Zuffenhausen facility as well as the Flacht Motorsports Centre, both located in Germany. The inaugural model from Porsche was the 996 GT3, which was in production for more than half a decade from 1999 to 2005. The 996 GT3 was given a special engine which set itself apart from most of the other 996 models, it was given the Integrated Dry Sump Flat Six engine which was used in the 911 GT1 race cars, known as the Mezgar engine, named after the creator Hans Mezgar. It was a 3.6L Porsche M96.79 Naturally Aspirated Flat Six engine which was capable of churning out 375 horses which was mated to a six speed manual gearbox, which was one of the killer combinations from Porsche. Of the six years in production around 2000 996 GT3s were produced, to be accurate with the numbers, 1,868 of them were produced. In 2006 Porsche gave a refreshment and introduced the next generation GT3, the 997 GT3 and added two more engine options to it as well. They were the 3.8L Flat Six as well as the 4.0L Flat Six engines under the hood. The new engines were coupled with the same transmission, the conventional Six speed manual gearbox. And then came the real one, the 991 GT3, the modern edition which was put up into production by 2013 and stayed in production until 2019 again after three years in 2021 came the new GT3 RS, which is personally the best looking GT3 of all.
The 991 GT3 was broken cover in the Geneva motorshow in 2013. As introduced it was featured with a new 3.8 Liter Multi Point Electronic Indirect Injection Flat Six Engine devoloping 469 Horses coupled with a new transmission, the Porsche 7 Speed PDK Gearbox or the Porsche Doppelkupplung dual clutch gearbox with a rear wheel drive system. But the 991 GT3 was known to have a bunch of reliablity issues and after quiet a bunch of costumers reporting problems the company put out an investigation which resulted in the discovery of the production error made by the supplier of connecting rod bolts, and all the GT3s were recalled to the dealership’s for clarifying the issue. As a result of the call back, the owners were given new engines and an years extended warrenty. By 2019 Porsche wrapped up the production of the 991 GT3 and after a three years break the bought up the locked and loaded all new 992 GT3, the best 911 till date. The new GT3 literally stunned the audiance with some subsequent changes in design to make it a bit modern as well as the best one on the lot. The new one was given the same engine as its older sibling, the 991, the 4.0L flat six engine churning put 503 horses and 469 NM torque which makes this car an absolute beast. Yes I mean it is a beast, the new 992 GT3 can do the 0-100 pull 3.4 seconds, ok this may not be as fast, but this is quiet enough for a road car which is capable of putting up competitive lap times as you take this to the weekend track day session.
The 992 GT3 was kind of a high revving one with the RPMs redlining at 9000 and it was kind of redesigned as well. The front and back bumpers were completely redesigned and a fake air went was added in the rear which was something unexpected from Porsche. The fact is that you can still find the signature Porsche design being still there, in fact with some design changes as well as aforementioned. The air vents in the hood and an overall aerodynamic design makes this one of the ultimate road car and track weapon at the same time. Honestly the 992 GT3 is one of the practical sports car that you can live with, if you spec it purposefully keeping in mind that the car is going to be your daily driver. This is one of the best cars to take for your office drives every mornings except the fact that this car is not exactly the best car for city traffic but you will be comfortable with it, which is an obvious point because this is a sports car. Speaking of which, the 992 GT3 is featured with the swan neck rear wing extracting the maximum amount of downforce from the rear spoiler and the rear diffuser, making this car capable of launching like an all wheel drive sports car, also giving you extreme confidence while shooting this car into corners as well. This car is having one of the extreme stability while taking corners, thanks to the rear wing and diffuser. To make the driving so easy they replaced the front suspension from strut to double wishbone suspension with adaptive damping which was adapted from the 911 RSR Racecar. The GT3 has the rear seat replaced with a roll cage making it an absolute track beast.
So coming to a conclusion, the Porsche 911 GT3 is one of the best sports car that can be your perfect choice if you want a car that can do the job as a daily car and something that you can push over the limit without thinking about the cost to repair, because as everyone says, a 911 GT3 is built from track for track. If you are looking for a car that is romantic and has a beast under the hood this is the best choice, because the GT3, at least for me has the best looking design, best track performance for a road car, at the same time a car that you can live, plus it is pocket friendly as well. Oh when I say pocket friendly, you have to think about it, the GT3 is cheaper than a 911 GT3 RS the powerful cousin who is an absolute track monster capable of putting out some real lap times in the track. But if you are a normal class man who is looking to own a GT3, it is going to cost you a fortune to buy it because the GT3 pricing starts at 2.55 Crores in Indian money. Which means you can just imagine how much it takes if you are about to spec it as you want it to be. But you wont regret at least a little bit if you buy this because you can see in person what this car is capable of doing on track. But you should be an enthusiast to buy it and should be able to take it to the tracks regularly as well.
For me the Porsche 911 GT3 is the best car that you can buy which can be your beautiful daily as well as weekend track monster where you can be fearless about the limit of the car, and have exceptional cornering speeds, letting you to take corners with exceptional confidence and precision. Something that really keeps me on the Porsche side is the fact that they haven't changed the design philosophy and have kept the signature Porsche performance, updating them accordingly. An interesting fact about the GT3 992 is that the Manual version has clocked out a top speed of 320 Kph meanwhile the PDK is 2 kph behind it clocking out 318 Kph. But at the same time the PDK is more quicker in launch, sprinting the 0-100 in 3.4 seconds and the manual doing the sprint in 3.9 seconds. A bit more broacher information, the 992 GT3 will do the quarter mile sprint in 11.3 seconds with the PDK and 11.9 seconds with the manual gearboxes respectively. So on and off the paper this is one of the best sports car on the lot, worthy of the money you pay at the end of the day. If you think of asking me a suggestion about buying this car, you are asking the wrong person because, absolutely I will say yes, because, one, it is my favorite car, and two, it is one of the best cars on the lot.
