We all know the 911 GT3. It is the class of the field, the an extreme bastion of driving experience over performance, and probably the greatest sports (super?) car on sale today. Now we have a new model with heavy revisions and a lot of new tech. This week the first journos to cane the fresh-for-2022 Porsche 911 GT3 on Angeles Crest have published their impressions, so we’ve got a deep panel of experts.
For this Review Rundown I looked at a bunch of articles by our friends across the industry and watched a few videos to get different perspectives on the new GT3. Since this car is all business, we’re focusing on on what the car’s like on a great canyon road, and what sort of new tech that the ‘Ring record-smashing new Porsche has to offer over the old one.
Here’s the Scoop
A new 911 GT3 is always something to celebrate, especially in a world where turbochargers, automatic gearboxes, and heavyweight bruiser sports cars are becoming the norm rather than the exception. There is a lot of mechanical carryover from the old 991.2 GT3 with subtle updates and refinements, with the engine mostly being carried over from the 911 Speedster and seven-speed PDK gearbox also carried over from the old GT3. The best parts are still there: Six-speed manual gearbox, 9000 RPM redline, and a focus on lightness. As a bonus, the car gets an all new dual-wishbone front suspension, a first for any 911.
Now that you’re up to speed on what this car matters, here’s what the internet’s automotive experts had to say about it.
On Interesting Tech and What’s New for 2022
The dual wishbone front axle of the new GT3 is 911 RSR track-car inspired, but I doubt that it is lifted straight from the RSR as claimed in some places. Porsche themselves admits that it is “adapted” from the RSR. From shots of Jason Fenske’s Engineering Explained Youtube video here (timestamped to the shots of the suspension), we can see that the arrangement of arms and suspension construction resemble that of a road car, though it retains great alignment and height adjustability.
Steven Ewing for CNET Roadshow – “The GT3 continues to use rear-wheel drive and rear-axle steering is standard. But the big-deal stuff is up front, where the GT3 gets the same double-wishbone suspension as the Le Mans-winning 911 RSR race car. (OK, Porsche says it’s “adapted” from the RSR, but again, it’s basically the same.) The benefit to a double-wishbone setup is better turn-in and increased feedback, neither of which have exactly been lacking in any new 911. The front track is also 1.9 inches broader than a 911 Carrera’s, for the added wide-stance traction.”
The new swan-neck rear wing also helps generate more downforce than the previous car – if a polarizing design choice. Paired with a new rear diffuser and air directing strakes on the floor behind the front wheels to better extract and expand the low pressure air underneath the car, the 2022 GT3 is capable is 50 percent more downforce than the old car as standard, and with some wrenches is capable of 150 percent more thanks to an adjustable wing and front splitter.
Robb Holland for Jalopnik – “Starting at the rear the newly developed diffuser can produce four times as much downforce as the one fitted to the previous generation GT3. Part of the reason for this substantial increase is that the entire underbody of the GT3 is now completely covered. Similar in design to the flat floors on race cars, completely covering the underbody smooths the airflow under the car and maximizes the efficiency of the diffuser.”
Doug DeMuro for his YouTube channel – “…Porsche has finally added a ‘next track’ button to move on to the next audio track as you’re listening to music or whatever. Porsche hasn’t had this on their steering wheel in years, it’s been incredibly annoying, but it is finally there, you can press that and change tracks. It’s good that they have it there because otherwise changing the track is kinda weird, it’s this little, electronic button to the upper-left of the shifter, you have to kind of, push down and tap on it, and that changes track. It would be annoying to take your hand off the wheel every time to push that, so it’s nice that they have it on the steering wheel.”
On Performance
The new GT3 claims a 17-second improvement on everybody’s favorite German forest track, down to a time of 6:55.2. That’s two seconds faster than the 886 horsepower 918 Spyder. Backing the new lap times up is a wave of praise across all reviewers about how much confidence the new GT3 inspires.
Chris Harris for Top Gear – “That engine, all the way out to 9,000 RPM. Still feels outrageous to me. Grip is good, traction is absolutely supreme! Chase the throttle… ah, this what it’s all about, this is what driving is all about. Love it. Does it feel profoundly different to a 991.2? No, it’s incremental. It feels like everything has been worked on. It’s the front of the car that’s better, though. Love the steering, and the four-wheel steering means the car turns so well! It can carry really silly speed at times. In this short exposure I’ve had to the car, I can tell you now, if you can afford to do so, buy one of these.”
Jonny Lieberman for Motor Trend (Instagram) – “Incredible front end. Planted like a German oak tree. Totally different than any other Porsche GT car. The front grip is as close to a race car as I’ve ever felt on a street car. Much, much more strapped down and sure footed than the already great 992 911.”
Zack Klapman for The Smoking Tire – “It makes it really easy. Visibility is really good, steering feel is really good. I feel really confident in the car.”
Bradley Iger for Motor1 – “Either way [automatic or manual], you can expect to be entertained. While the outgoing car was no slouch in the corners, the new suspension takes the GT3’s to the next level. Combined with standard rear-wheel steering, the car changes direction with unflappable precision and a seemingly bottomless well of mechanical grip at its disposal. We’d often enter a familiar corner assuming that we were approaching the limit only to discover that we had still left a lot on the table. And each time, we’d console ourselves by letting the flat six sing its way to 9000 RPM on the approach to the next one. Hey, don’t judge us – we all have our coping mechanisms.”
James Dennison for CAR Magazine – “It’s just generating so much lateral grip, that, it’s making me feel pretty unfit because I’m getting thrown around in here! And the soft, squidgy me is not accustomed to this kind of grip in a road car. It’s properly phenomenal. I mean it’s still got, that slight, slight, little bit of vagueness around the center point on the steering, which you get with 911s, it’s not completely sharp just off-center, but once you get past that it’s just so intuitive the steering. And so direct and so well-proportioned. And of course, so much feel. That for this kind of money there’s just nothing better, aside from purpose-built stuff like Radicals or Caterhams. This, this is where the benchmark is at.”
On Refinement
Now this is an interesting negative or positive point for the new GT3. With a nearly fully heim-jointed or ball jointed suspension arrangement with minimal bushings, the feedback and rawness of the new GT3 have some journalists buzzing with joy, and some just a bit annoyed. Tony Quiroga of C&D loved it, while Matt Farah of Road & Track felt that it made the GT3 un-dailyable.
Tony Quiroga for Car & Driver – “Ball joints replace most of the rubber in the suspension. Little vibrations that would be sopped up in a normal 911 ripple through the steering and right past the light padding of the $5900 Full Bucket seats. You’re suddenly keenly aware of the size and shape of the aggregate used in the asphalt or concrete rolling underneath—definitely a medium coarse rounded granite. The vibes aren’t annoying, either. They’re just a clearer connection between you and the car.”
Matt Farah for Road & Track – “On urban streets and LA’s concrete highways, the GT3’s suspension is brutal. From the driver’s seat it feels much more like it should be an RS product. The wheels stay on the ground, but the driver gets banged and bounced around pretty heavily, much like on the last RS. Unlike the last car, this one might no longer be the ultimate all-rounder. The same compromise is made in the steering, which again like the last RS is now a two-handed affair. Between the ball joints, the wide stance, the widened tires, and the quick rack, it’s even kind of darty.”
Review Context
It seems that Porsche offered the new GT3 to be driven in Los Angeles nearly exclusively, with damn near every review here being written from the pavement on Angeles Crest Highway. It was no PR handler or press event, but just a pen-wielding steely-eyed helmsman and a fast Porsche. Over in Europe it seems that some outlets got track time. The color on the test cars you’re seeing on both continents is called “Shark Blue” and it’s a $4,220 option.
You’ll start seeing more, and longer, write-ups around the internet soon as Porsche’s media loaner GT3 makes its way around the country.
Picture Gallery
If you didn’t get a chance to hit the CNET Roadshow review link, it’s worth a click for the photos alone. Jonathan “JBH” Harper did one of his signature night shoots with the car and it looks sweet. Otherwise, our favorite standby car photo repository NetCarShow has 29 pages of 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 pictures to look at. We’ll leave you for a handful of highlights before you hit the comment section and share your thoughts.
