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It was January 26 of last year when Porsche initially teased the next-gen 911 GT3 in its Super Bowl ad and yet we still haven’t seen the track toy in its entirety. Thankfully, the wait is almost over as the Zuffenhausen brand announced in a teaser last week that the world premiere would take place on February 16. Meanwhile, a new video has been released to make it easier to wait for next Tuesday’s big debut.
For some reason, Porsche doesn’t explicitly say it’s the GT3, describing it only as the “new GT sports car”. We firmly believe that the car teased here is the GT3 as the 14 second clip shows the car finished in the same blue tint as featured a year ago. Additionally, Chris Harris’ video for Top Gear in late November 2020 showed a similarly painted car.
36 Pictures
Having been invited by Porsche to ride inside a prototype late last year, we already have some confirmed tech specs that we can share. At the heart of the new 911 GT3 will be an evolution of the naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six engine of the 991.2 Speedster. It shows a red line of 9,000 rpm and develops 510 horsepower or 10 more horsepower than the previous generation GT3 while maintaining the same weight of 3,116 pounds.
Porsche GT boss Andreas Preuninger told us that around 80% of the engineering team’s efforts have been funneled into bringing the engine to increasingly stringent emissions regulations. The remaining 20% was used to take the GT3 to the next level, in part thanks to improved aerodynamics, as downforce increased by 50% without affecting drag.
Even though the spring stiffness was increased by 25%, we found the prototype to deliver a “smooth, compliant ride” after Porsche’s GT division spent countless hours fine-tuning the damping. The rear suspension was basically taken from the 991.2 GT3, which means it still has a multi-link arrangement with rear wheel steering.
Further changes occurred to the front suspension where the new generation model adopts forged aluminum wishbones borrowed from the company’s racing cars. The wheels are also larger than before, measuring 20 inches and 9.5 inches wide at the front axle, while the rear features 21-inch, 12-inch-wide alloys. The wheels are shod with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires and are fitted with larger brakes than before.
Inside, the driver has the choice of using the PDK’s seven-speed paddle shifters or the gearshift mounted on the transmission tunnel. Purists need not worry as there will always be an old-fashioned six-speed manual transmission with three pedals for both the regular GT3 and the more subtle wingless GT3 Touring.
We’ll have all the details and a full image gallery on February 16, when we also stream Porsche’s livestream of the premiere event.
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