Porsche has been caught lying! Before you get too upset, we have to mention that this is the only acceptable form of lying. The fact that German high-end automakers tend to be overly conservative with performance numbers is news yesterday, but the new 911 GT3 has real-world ballistic acceleration. Keep in mind it’s still a track-focused car with a naturally aspirated engine at its core, so it’s not a Turbo S in terms of acceleration. Or is it?
Carwow launched the 992 generation GT3, breaking the manufacturer’s claims about the 0-60mph time. With the tires not at the ideal temperature and therefore not enough traction, the first run was far from ideal, as Mat Watson managed to get a sprint of just 3.11 seconds. Perhaps “alone” is not the right word to use, since its first run was actually under 3.2 seconds quoted by Porsche for the PDK-equipped model.
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He turned off traction control for the second sprint, but that only made matters worse as the car couldn’t deliver the 502 horsepower efficiently to the road. It hit 100 mph in 4.36 seconds, which is still a decent time for a performance car, but not quite worthy of the GT3 badge.
As the saying goes, the third time is a charm, thanks to the warm tires and the active electronic aids. It did nothing to 100 mph in 2.87 seconds, making it over 0.3 seconds faster than the official spec sheet. That makes it less than three tenths of a second slower than the sprint time that Porsche mentioned for the 911 Turbo S. 2.55 seconds.
The 911 GT3 completed the quarter mile in 10.85 seconds, which is impressive for a sports car built primarily for racetracks. Speaking of which, Porsche claims its latest track toy is more than 17 seconds around the Nürburgring than its predecessor, although both are roughly the same weight and power. It all comes down to the numerous aero upgrades and other tweaks that help the 911 GT3 get around corners faster and improve handling.
Of course, a warmer RS version is only a matter of time and you can be sure that Porsche will find new ways to give it an advantage over the regular GT3. In fact, the beefed-up model was recently caught wearing a massive racecar-esque rear wing hiding its vented front fenders as part of what will likely be a comprehensive upgrade package to earn that RS badge.