Since its 1999 introduction, the 911 GT3 has been the most important car in the Porsche stable, even though Stuttgart sells very few of them. The 911, after all, is Porsche’s icon. And the GT3 is the fastest 911.
For 2022, the German automaker is giving us essentially a race car made just barely street legal, for the tiny fraction of buyers who will shell out over $150,000 to own one.
It’s as pure an iteration of the Porsche spirit as you can imagine. No turbo. No supercharger. Just a naturally-aspirated 6-cylinder engine. An engine behind the axles, no less, where it should threaten stability with every turn. And yet, it’ll give every supercharged, 8- and 12-cylinder supercar a run for its money, and outcorner many.
Visually, there’s only so much Porsche can do to a 911 while retaining its basic silhouette. The 2022 GT3 features air vents in the leading edge of the hood, a stance nearly 2 inches wider than the standard 911, and an adjustable front diffuser. The rear wing is adjustable. It perches on an industrial-looking set of struts that curl over the wing surface instead of under.
Porsche says that properly adjusted, the diffuser and wing pair to give the car 150 percent of the downforce of the old GT3.
Inside, the GT3 looks much like other 911s, but a set of 18-way adjustable carbon-fiber bucket seats are available only on this model. The driver’s instrument cluster features an optional track mode that drops away most information, leaving you with just a tachometer and a speedometer for the simplest possible feedback.
There are two transmissions. One is a 6-speed manual. The other is 7-speed dual-clutch affair, but Porsche employs the same shifter as the manual. Its sequential electronic shifts give as much control as a manual without leg-cramping clutch work in heavy traffic. Paddle shifters mounted to the steering wheel do the same.
That flat-6 produces 502 horsepower and has a remarkably high 9,000 rpm redline. It’s good for a 0-60 time of 3.2 seconds, and a top speed of 197 mph. The front suspension is a double-wishbone setup that comes from the 911 RSR race car. The rear suspension is a multilink design unique to the GT3. 20-inch front and 21-inch rear wheels can pair optionally with a set of scarcely-legal racing slicks to further improve grip.
Pricing is not yet available, but we expect it to start at about $150,000. The 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 goes on sale in the fall of 2021.
