Thread: Porsche 911 GT2

NOW THE GT SUFFIX STANDS for any thing but gran turismo. With the Porsche 911 GTz, 'guaranteed trauma' might be a more apt interpretation. How does the new GTz fit into the framework of the 911 family? It combines elements of hardcore GT3 and suave, super-quick Turbo. So it's the most powerful 911, shorn of namby¬pamby four-wheel drive. On a grey day typical of summer Z007, it drizzled from dawn till dusk, the roads around Stuttgart were busy with traffic, and the bright yellow test car was fitted with semi-slick ryres. An epic drive - or a recipe for disaster?

The GTzlooks as threatening as a smiling count Dracula. By the Turbo's bright LED indicators sit new XXL air intakes to cool the brakes and the heat exchangers. Below is a ground-effect nosecone that sucks in air, channels it past the mid-mounted radiator and forces it out through a black letterbox-type diffusor. Fat sills and aprons hug the flanks to the ground, beneath prominent intake and heat dissipation louvres. But the butchest view is from the rear, which boasts yet more vertical slats, a pair of large diameter exhausts and a fixed bi-plane wing that fulfils three functions: it increases down force at high speed, incorporates two ram-air induction scoops, and it looks mean enough to scare off Koenigseggs and Paganis. Predictably, the GTz sports as much overtaking presence as police, fire brigade and ambulance on blues and twos. It will pass almost any other car on the autobahn but, in this warped reality, the top speed of 3z8km/h calls for the right conditions. For a start, you want the tarmac to be dry, smoothly surfaced and arrow-straight. And you definitely don't need slower traffic in the middle lane.

You should get used to this car's high-speed abilities in instalments.
Like every 911, it seems to know what it's doing, and it requires surprisingly little assistance to maintain the chosen flight path. But it does need matching commitment from the driver. There is so much information flowing via eyes, ears, palms and pants that the senses switch to overload. In the GT z, you need to learn a fresh set of responses because this turbocharged 911 has only two driven wheels. As a result, it turns in with more vigour, decelerates with enhanced determination, corners with added sharpness. At just three-quarters of its potential, it feels mind-bogglingly fast. The noise level is intense, the suspension copies every detail of the surface it travels on, and the steering is a live wire. More importantly, it will never pull you out of trouble. And we all know that pushing out of trouble seldom works.



Further narrowing the slim ridge between drama and trauma are those shaved Cup tyres. BMW started this debatable trend with the M3 CSL, Mercedes followed suit with the CLK DTM AMG, and now Porsche has jumped on the same bandwagon with a set of tyres that look like Kojak's scalp with a few tattoos. On dry blacktop, this footwear may make sense for rich amateur racers who don't mind buying a new set of rear rubbers every two months. But as soon as there are puddles on the road, those 3zS/30 ZRI9 steamrollers make you a passenger in the GTz, even at 60mph. And the transition from carving to water-skiing is snap-sudden. Would it not be a good idea to offer less extreme factory-fitted tyres? It seems a fair enough request, given that you can have less extreme seats than the standard carbon clamshell buckets, which would have stuck to my behind for good.

So we didn't see 3zIkm/h on the autobahn that day. But we out-accelerated everything that crossed our route, among them a Suzuki monsterbike and - briefly appearing on a parallel runway - a Boeing 737 Even so, over the first 50metres from rest, the 530PS, 1440kg GTz is actually not quite as quick as the 480PS, IS8Skg 911 Turbo tiptronic. From rest to IOokm/h, it's a dead heat at 3.7sec each. To zOIkm/h, however, the two-wheel drive GTz will beat the four¬wheel drive Turbo by a full second. And by the z98km/h mark, the GTz carves itself an impressive eight-second advantage. On damp ground, the GTz spins its wheels in first and second gear between zzoorpm and 4500rpm, where the maximum torque of 679Nm loves to play havoc with the driveshafrs and the frame-filling tyres.

The 911 Turbo's closely related 3.6-litre motor can deliver identical twist action, but only for a couple of moments in overboost mode. very 911 is an anachronism. Its archaic rear-engined layout dates back to the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the six-speed manual gearbox feels even older than the environment it works in. Porsche is proud of its race-proven 'box, with its short and precise throws, but the clutch is much too heavy, and the lever movements feel emphatically mechanical. Like the M3, the new GTz needs the overdue dual-clutch paddleshifr transmission that will allegedly appear next year. But the GTz is the first Porsche fitted with launch control. How does it work? Engage first gear, depress the clutch and floor the throttle. Instead of hitting the limiter at 6800rpm, the tachometer needle will stabilise at sooorpm. Now drop the clutch if you dare. What follows is a noisy conflict of interest between torque and traction control. Yes. there's a lot of friction involved in the exercise, and you can soon smell it in the cabin.



Since the flat six loves to rev, a red arrow flashes at about 6000rpm to give you (just) enough time to shift up before the limiter calls time. Mechanical grip is enhanced by an asymmetric limited-slip differential that adjusts its locking ratio according to throttle load. The stability control allows you to choose between three settings: fully active, ESP Off and ESP+TC Off. Somewhat surprisingly, ESP Off is the best compromise between grin and spin. In this mode, like a Formula I racer, the GTz will let traction control take care of longitudinal stability while leaving it to your right hoof to modulate the lateral dynamics. It won't automatically reactivate ESP should the drift angle become too lurid, so make sure you have plenty of room.
The raw appeal of the GTz is directly linked to its engine speed. At a steady 4000rpm it's just a fast car.

Above that, adrenaline suddenly floods your system as the flat six takes off like a runaway nuclear reactor. And it doesn't only eclipse the Turbo on power, it sounds better too. The stereophonic charger whine addresses both ears individually, the intake resonance becomes almost physically tangible above sooorpm, and the exhaust note evolves to a dense, multi-vocal, high-rev explosion that's loud enough to make guardrail rivets pop as you rush by. No, this is definitely not the perfect daily commuter coupe. But it's a great Sunday morning experience, and demanding enough to save you the odd hour in the gym.

Listen closely and you may be able to decipher the nine oil pumps that feed the dry sump lubrication, or perhaps detect the new intake plenum, rerouted to further cool the intake mixture. Check out the digital gauge and watch the boost pressure climb to IAbar - that's 0.4 bar higher than in the Turbo. These changes add up to a quantifiable gain in performance that sees the GTzlap the Nlirburgring in 7min 3zsec - that's Carrera GT territory. Like the body and the drivetrain, the chassis underwent plenty of fine-tuning. The rear axle crossmember is now forged aluminium, the ride height is zsmm lower, the rear track smm wider, the active dampers have been stiffened mercilessly, and the rubber suspension bushes replaced by zero-play metal ones.

To keep weight down, the doors and the bootlid are made of light alloy and, for the same reason, there are no rear seats, but you can specify the no¬frills Clubsport kit complete with roll cage, six¬point harness and fire extinguisher at no extra cost. Included for £131,070 are carbon ceramic brakes. Can the rawest 911 really be worth £sok more than a GT3 with standard brakes? And is it 30 grand better than a Turbo with wonderbrakes? Yes and no. If you're seeking the ultimate 911 thrill, rear-wheel drive is genuinely still a must, even with this much power. And that discounts the Turbo.

But what marks the decisive difference between the GTz and any other 911 is the exceptional clarity of motion. The performance is instant, linear and inexhaustible. The handling is intuitive, ultra¬sharp and totally uncompromising. Get it right, and feel like you're king of the road.

Mastering an improbable engineering concept at its highest level is hugely rewarding but, like all special 9IIS, the GTz is definitely not the right Porsche for poseurs or pretenders. If you can't face the challenge of pure driving, go promenading in a Lamborghini Murcielago instead.