Porsche 911 GT3 2025 review: Bittersweet moment as brilliant performance model draws line under legendary GT3 lineage
One spectacular last explosion in the petrolheads’ night sky
There’s something rather poignant about the launch of every “big beast” new car model these days. As the era of internal combustion engines (ice) winds down and we step boldly into the electric vehicle (EV) age, it’s hard to shake the feeling that these exciting, visceral machines are the equivalent of the last, gigantic fireworks at a public display — the manufacturers giving us one huge, glittering and loud showstopper to definitively end the performance, and send everyone home satisfied.
And certainly, automotive fireworks don’t come much louder, more dazzling or stupefying than a Porsche 911 GT3. In the space of just a quarter of a century, this variant in the 911 lineage has gone from a motor-sport-derived, retro homage to one of Porsche’s most iconic cars of the past — the 2.7 Carrera RS “ducktail” of 1973 — and evolved into something equally as heralded and desirable in the process. While any Porsche 911 is special, there’s a good argument to say the GT3 is the most special of the lot.
It has built its nigh-on unimpeachable reputation on three simple tenets: focusing on being as lightweight as possible; placing its driver right at the heart of the dynamic action and then rewarding them immensely for their efforts; and, perhaps most importantly of all, employing a high-revving screamer of a flat-six engine.
Yet it’s on that last point that the launch of this version, known in Porsche-aficionado speak as the “992.2” — which simply means the facelifted, updated version of the fourth GT3, originally launched in 2021 — gives off the impression that you’re looking up into the night sky as one of the enormous rockets of the ice era bursts into an iridescent, golden shower of light. An act followed by some deeply appreciative “oohs” and “ahs”, before the dark and cold sets in for good.
If you afford the spec sheets of this latest GT3 only a cursory glance, you might think it’s the only version in the now-26-year history (the original GT3, the 996.1, arrived in 1999; 2024 was the car’s 25th anniversary year) that has taken a retrograde step from its immediate predecessor.
For instance, its 4-litre six-cylinder petrol engine, still mercifully free from turbochargers or hybrid systems and capable of revving to a stratospheric 9,000rpm, has no more power than it did before, with 503bhp. But it has lost about 15lb ft of torque (twisting force), to stand at 332lb ft overall.
It has also piled on a few pounds. At its heaviest, the bulkiest specification of the GT3 is around 21kg portlier than it was previously. Thankfully, you can tick some options boxes, such as the Weissach Package — available for the first time on a GT3 and borrowed from its more extreme RS relation — and the forged magnesium wheels, to bring the total weight gain down to a mere 2kg, model for model.
Yet these are not cheap options. Not at all. The Weissach kit, for example, is £19,531 all on its own.
But the reason for both the reduced torque and the increased weight is down to one simple thing: legislation.
Governments around the world want us all to move into EVs, whether we like it or not, and so the emissions regulations become ever more stringent and harder to satisfy, in order to make ice cars no longer viable for manufacturers.
Nevertheless, Porsche has done an astounding amount of hidden work getting the 4-litre engine to meet the latest laws worldwide, principally by sticking another pair of catalytic converters in its short exhaust system, so that it could appease its demanding GT3 clientele base and keep the 992.2 normally aspirated.
But for how much longer? In the three years or so this version will be on sale, those emissions regs are only going to get tougher and more punitive still on ice vehicles, to the point that — while no one at Porsche would explicitly say it — this is surely going to be the last GT3 of this rarefied engine type that will get a market launch.
The weight gain comes not only from those additional cats in the tailpipes, but extra reinforcements in the 911’s doors — to meet the latest safety regs.
In short, while there may not be any obvious numerical gains for this GT3 when compared to the car it replaces, Porsche has put a heck of a lot of work in behind the scenes to keep the new model as pure and as prized as ever.
Plus, there are plenty of benefits in the latest 911 GT3 that aren’t easy to quantify in the specs. For instance, the engineers have worked hard to remove friction from the steering, hoping to give the car a little more front-end stability when going over bumps in the road, or kerbs on the track — which is, after all, its natural habitat.
The suspension has been adapted with different bump stops and longer-travel springs to facilitate this behaviour yet further, while a change to the lower balljoint at the nose of the car reduces dive by half under heavy braking — the front of the GT3 will only dip 6mm now, instead of 12mm as before.
Then there are alterations to both the gearboxes available on the 911 GT3, these being a six-speed manual or a seven-speed PDK dual-clutch auto. The former has a shorter gearshift lever, taken from the ultra-rare 911 S/T, while both transmissions have had their final-drive ratios shortened by eight per cent.
This reduces the (meaningless, in a way, even on a track-focused car like this) top speed from 198mph to 194mph. But the fastest 0-62mph time is preserved at 3.4 seconds on the PDK-equipped model with launch control. Porsche also says the GT3 is now better at transmitting more of its torque to the rear wheels with fewer mechanical losses, making it feel more urgent for in-gear acceleration despite the fact that it hasn’t gained any power or torque at all.
Visually, not an awful lot has been altered. Inside, like any other updated eighth-generation 911, it now has a fully digital instrument cluster, which, in Track mode, can rotate the central rev counter anticlockwise so the 9,000rpm redline is right at the top of the dial.
Unlike other 992.2s, though, the GT3 has a moulded cowl sitting above its dial pack and running the full width of the dash, while it also retains its twist-to-start dashboard ignition key and a proper, tall lever for the PDK, rather than the stubbier metal item employed in other 911s in the range.
On the outside, it’s basically subtle revisions to the headlights and rear lights, plus the front and back bumpers, as well as a few holes cut in the spokes of the GT3’s alloys to make them 1.5kg lighter than they were before.
Naturally, the GT3’s track-bias will put some people off the “regular” model, for want of a much better word, because it has an enormous swan-neck wing mounted on the rear.
Luckily, there’s a more aesthetically demure spin-off called the GT3 with Touring Package — most just refer to it as the GT3 Touring — which deletes the spoiler and much of the overt motorsport content of the 911, all without compromising on the chassis and powertrain goodness of the vehicle.
So, what is it like to drive? Well, in a word, heavenly. There are few cars in the world that get near the exalted dynamic capabilities of a Porsche 911 GT3, and about the closest you’re going to get is by picking either another 911 of some sort, or maybe another top-end Porsche such as a 718 Cayman GT4 RS.
But even then, we’d still argue the GT3 is king of them all. Having driven both Weissach-equipped and non-Weissach winged cars on the Circuit Ricardo Tormo near Valencia, then taken a GT3 Touring out for a long run on the roads surrounding the track, it’s fair to say this 911 really is better than ever. Some achievement, given the exceptional back catalogue of cars it is ranged up against.
Exquisite steering that’s without flaw allows a super-clear interface between driver and machine, and while the double-wishbone front suspension of the GT3 previously lent the Porsche a certain nervousness on lumpier surfaces, now it’s thoroughly dependable as you batter it across high raised kerbs on track, or take it through a series of tight bends on a sinuous mountain road.
The damping is also magnificent and does that remarkable trick of bestowing such an intense, focused car like the GT3 with a ride quality that’s surprisingly supple and forgiving. You’ll always be aware this is a serious piece of performance kit when you’re at the wheel, but this 911 never crashes into compressions in the road and has such exemplary wheel control that even streets that look like they’re covered in crazy paving are no problem.
Yet, for all the excellence dialled into its chassis, the outstanding engine is still the centrepiece. It makes all the right noises at lower revs, transforming into a hard-edged, insistent bark as the needle swings from 3,000rpm right through to 7,000rpm.
But the real acoustic splendour takes place if you’re bold and hang onto a gear beyond 7,000rpm. It’s here that the metallic snarl of the GT3 morphs once again into a spine-tingling yowl of such clarity and purpose that you’ll just want to listen to it again, and again, and again. There is nothing in the road-going motoring world, not ice nor EV, which can make a noise anything like the 4-litre 911.
And so, it sears an indelible driving experience in your memory, like you’ve looked a little too intensely at that £500 super-rocket sent up to round off the overall firework show and burnt its pattern onto your retinas, so that you can still imagine it when you close your eyes.
Maybe, then, that’s what we’ll have to do once the normally aspirated 911 GT3 is no more. Close our eyes and remember just how outrageously good it was, in every conceivable detail. It’s a shame that it won’t be able to continue indefinitely into the future, but perhaps we should just be thankful that it ever existed in the first place.
Related articles
- If you were interested in our review of the new Porsche 911 GT3, you might like to read a review of the updated Porsche Taycan
- Or read our review of the new electric Porsche Macan
- You might also like to read our review of the BMW M3 Touring
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