Porsche 911 GT3 and Touring 2026 Review: Track drive

Dark clouds pushed by savage southerly gusts speed across the sky as garage roller-doors rattle in chorus. The hot sun has just been replaced by a full moon, hot brakes perfume the pit lane at Sydney Motorsport Park. 

We’re here for our first taste of the new, ‘992.2’ generation Porsche 911 GT3 in full-fat bewinged and demure Touring guises.

Pitched to us by Porsche Cars Australia as a ‘speed-dating’ experience, it’s an abridged taste of the Stuttgart marque’s latest flagship combustion cars before a road drive later in the year. 

If you ignore the Cayenne, it’s the first time in GT-car history Porsche has offered back seats from the factory. They’re small, sure, but it means owners will be able to inspire the next generation more easily than before. 

They’re fitted to the pair of Slate Grey Neo Touring pack GT3s, which look beautiful.

The retro wingless silhouette anchor them to their heritage, set off by classy Black/Cohibra Brown Exklusiv Manufaktur leather — a $28,070 option, if you’re wondering. 

Should you wish to prioritise protection in a crash over back seats, Porsche now offers two roll-cage options, too. A steel arrangement in the Club Sport package (a no-cost option with the fold-forward carbon buckets) also bundles a six-point harness and fire extinguisher. 

Alternatively, you can go lighter, electing for the $47,530 Weissach Pack with carbon roll-cage on the winged GT3, as seen on the Guards Red car.

This is pretty serious stuff, and the first time Weissach has been offered on a non-RS GT car. 

Other goodies include carbon-fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) suspension components (anti-roll bars, coupling rods, shear panels), mirror caps, front air blades, door handles, and side panels of the huge rear wing. 

Optional forged magnesium wheels, as fitted, are a $33,840 option and save 9.1kg unsprung mass. For Touring buyers, a similar Leichtbau (Lightweight) pack is available. 

Still, the new 992.2 911 GT3 is fractionally heavier than the car it replaces, tipping the scales at 1420kg in its lightest configuration (+2kg), or 1439kg without options. 

Power from the 4.0-litre naturally-aspirated flat-six hasn’t increased, either, still pinned at a healthy 375kW.

Emissions regulations have led to a total of four catalytic and two petrol particulate filters, strangling 20Nm, now down to 450Nm. We’re clearly approaching the limit of naturally-aspirated machines. 

It’s quieter, this new GT3, though nothing an aftermarket Akrapovic won’t fix. Plus, sink down into the supportive bucket seats with minimal (but adequate) padding and you can still feel the throbbing flat six inside.

The pews are power-adjustable for height, and manual slide, making it easy to get comfortable.  

As our GT3 has come in hot from the previous session, there’s no chance to interact with the still-present twist-to-start in the GT3 — 911 Carrera, GTS and Turbo variants are now boring push-button affairs. 

Time to take this 500-plus horsepower, rear-engined, rear-drive sports car with hot tyres onto the track. It’s a little daunting, especially as a droplet of water hits the windscreen. 

In the manual, winged GT3 first, the clutch bites right off the floor. Catch it with some throttle, before it stalls, and take off. Twist the wheel-mounted drive selector into ‘Track’ and, thankfully, that’s it for mode fiddling.

The 911 is refreshingly set-and-forget after bamboozling customisation of BMW M, Mercedes-AMG and Hyundai N products. 

There’s an inherent rightness to the 911 GT3. You may have never driven one, or not done so in a very long time, and yet interacting with the steering, brake, clutch and gear lever is like shaking hands with an old friend. Totally predictable, entirely reassuring. 

Auto rev-matching is on, but so perfect is the GT3’s pedal spacing and brake pedal support, heel and toe downshifts are second nature. 

We’re told to keep the new GT3 in third gear through the tight, double-apex turn two on the GT Circuit and with the eight percent shorter final drive ratio from the 911 S/T, the new car pulls convincingly from the mid corner.

Equally satisfying is the slick, precise and light gearshift, controlled by the stubbier lever also borrowed from the S/T.

The shorter gearing negates that on-paper torque loss, and the new GT3 also benefits from revisions to the cylinder heads, individual throttle bodies and ‘hotter’ camshafts.

Drama is increased beyond 5000rpm as the engine comes alive. Cooling has been stepped up, too, for continuous lapping in hot conditions. 

Just one lap in, the confidence the GT3 instills in the driver is absurd. It’s fast, sure, but crucially there’s no major drama after a dud braking point, or advancing the throttle too soon — just a nibble of understeer telegraphed delicately through the steering wheel.

A suggestion you might revise your technique. 

I’m reminded of what Porsche Track Experience Chief and 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner Luke Youlden said in the driver briefing — the new GT3 doesn’t punish mistakes. It’s nothing like a race car in that sense, he says. You’d think that might make it boring. Nope. 

We swap places and I’m behind the lead driver now, the pace rises, the rear-engine balance becomes helpful under brakes, rotating the GT3 towards the apex and necessitating a hack of opposite lock as I overdo it into the downhill, on-camber turn eight.

That’s on me, not the car, and that’s satisfying. 

A run through the high-speed turn-one at decent pace shows up the GT3’s superb balance and aerodynamic poise.

It feels like you could ramp up turn-in speed endlessly (latterly, Youlden proves 185km/h is a cinch). And just as we’re getting into the groove, the instructor’s hazards come on, and it’s back to the pits. 

To round out the brief evening, it’s time in the PDK-equipped cars, this time a slinky Touring. Supple leather coats the 18-way seats which are plusher, yet rob some of the clarity of road feel you get through your bum. 

Compared to the six-speed manual, the seven-speed PDK is half a second quicker from 0-100km/h (3.4sec) than the manual. What’s surprising is how significant that feels on track. 

Pulling out of pit-lane, the PDK-equipped car is more urgent, more brutal, and more exciting because of it. Under brakes, the car picks the perfect downshift point. You’d say it was telepathic, if it wasn’t for the fact it works faster than the brain can comprehend. 

There’s another hidden trick to the auto GT3, being the standard-fit PTV Plus electronically-controlled limited-slip differential as opposed to the manual’s mechanical item.

This adds another layer of sophistication, subtly turning impatient throttle inputs into mid-corner rotation instead of understeer. 

Not to say the manual car isn’t entirely pliable, like putty in the driver’s hands, but the PDK’s rotation borders supernatural.

Without that massive wing, you’d expect the Touring to feel a little less stable at speed, but the difference is minimal at these speeds, at least in feel as Porsche’s GT department has refined the package for identical balance. 

Big changes have happened underneath the new GT3s, with tweaked front spoiler lips, modified underbody fins and even aerodynamically-optimised rear trailing arms and double wishbone front suspension components. 

Without a gear lever to wiggle about, confidence grows quickly in the Touring. Moving quicker, the precision and calmness of the talkative steering becomes an attribute, allowing the driver to guide the gripped-up front axle exactly where it needs to be. 

The brakes help here, too. The spacing in the PDK essentially forces left-foot braking and the supportive pedal gives immense confidence.

Porsche’s tweaked the pivot points on the front suspension for greater anti-dive, giving a flatter platform under brakes and therefore improving ease of trail-braking. 

Now feeling totally at ease, some bandwidth can be dedicated to suspension set-up which is actually softer than before, responding to complaints of the pre-update 992 GT3 and incorporating learnings from the S/T with new, more capable dampers. 

There’s also 25mm more stroke thanks to reprofiled bump stops. Adaptive dampers are standard and have three modes: Normal, Sport and Track.

Both Touring and winged GT3s now use identical set-ups as a result of the changes.  

Even in Track, the GT3 gobbles up kerbs — from sawtooth to sausage — like Homer Simpson at a ’ball game.

In fact, feel-wise, it’s possibly one ever-so-slight shortcoming of this GT3. Over some of Sydney Motorsport Park’s mid-corner ripples, the GT3’s body does float a whisker more than is strictly comfortable. 

That’s about as much of a nitpick as you could throw at any car. Plus, pure racetrack life is the game of the all-out GT3 RS…or an actual racecar.

Suspicion is that this minuscule compliance trade-off will more-than pay dividends when we get the Touring out for a proper fang on our favourite roads. 

At this point, the instructor’s hazard lights glow again, and after a 30-plus degree day the Pirelli tyres on the GT3’s 20-inch front and 21-inch rear wheels are decidedly worse for wear, but everything else feels tight as a drum.

Firm brake pedal, strident powertrain, suspension, like this car’s built to be abused and we didn’t even come close. 

The other major sticking point for these GT3s is the price. Before you touch the configurator, we’re already talking $446,700, before on-road costs. The red GT3s are optioned up to $574,680, and the Slate Grey examples a staggering $626,150. 

That’s beyond Ferrari 296 GTB money ($604,000), and when you look at the spec sheets, the Fezza produces an extra 235kW and has all the complexity of a hybrid battery. No-brainer? Not really. 

As always, the Porsche 911 GT3 satisfies on a more cerebral level. It does so in an almost Toyota Hilux (and we mean this as a complement) way, with Porsche ensuring every component has been tested to destruction so you can hit the racetrack weekly (or more) and only really worry about consumables. 

Even though it’s quieter, the 911 GT3’s 4.0-litre flat-six is still an intoxicating mechanical marvel. That manual transmission may be slower, but the satisfaction of commanding proceedings is worth the trade-off.

That the new GT3, in Touring or winged, manual or PDK, instills such immediate confidence in the driver is the biggest takeaway from our brief experience. Crisp, responsive, pliable and totally addictive, the Porsche 911 GT3 prevails on track. We can’t wait to get it out on the road.