The New Porsche GT3
On February 13th, 2006, Porsche announced one of its most long-awaited models, the sixth generation 911 Turbo. Indeed, this is an important car for Porsche, as it’s the model that has to live up to the legend of the world’s first turbocharged production car, and one of the best all-round sports cars made to date, the previous-generation 911 Turbo.
The new (997) Turbo builds on previous models by advancing the all-wheel drive system and tipping the world of turbocharging on its side once again by implementing the world’s first variable geometry turbo on a gasoline-powered car. The 911 Turbo is so vital to the Porsche brand, that it’s been titled the ‘masterwerk’. But let’s not forget that there’s still another vehicle that stands above it in the 911 range, the 911 GT3.
Though there aren’t any doubts that the Turbo is a very important car from technological, sales and historical standpoints, the GT3 is the car that was Porsche’s outright star at Geneva. The GT3 represents Porsche’s racing heritage filtered down for road-legal use, and they’ve taken every aspect of this conversion as seriously and as passionately as possible.
Proof? Your eyes should easily catch the difference between this and standard 911s. It features new front bumpers for better airflow in, and new rear bumpers for better airflow out the back (where the engine is), and in between nose and tail, plates cover the mechanical bits under the car to improve airflow there too. The GT3’s tail spoiler has also grown larger in size, and there’s an additional vent that has snuck its way in front of the nose-mounted trunk. All of that and the car manages to slip through the air with a drag coefficient rating of 0.29 cd, better than most modern cars with skinny tires, narrow bodies and no gigantic drag-increasing spoiler.
(Photo gallery on page 3)