GT4
Nordschleife
- Joined
- 8 Nov 2008
- Messages
- 30,181
The first of the three most critical departures between it and its forebears is that this is the first 911 to be built chiefly from aluminium.
The second difference is that the wheelbase has been extended by a substantial (but currently secret) amount.
Two-thirds of the extra space between the wheels is located behind the driver, although it remains a fundamentally two-seat car. Project manager August Achleitner insists the car's character and agility have not been compromised.
The front track has been widened by a similar amount to that of the current 997 GT3 RS.
The suspension's relative spring rates have been slightly increased while the damping has been backed off a little, in pursuit of better small bump isolation.
Whether this has been achieved at the expense of some of that magical 997 ability to make you feel hardwired into the road surface, is simply impossible to say without a steering wheel in your hands.
What you do notice is the disconnect between the savagery with which the car attacks each corner and the almost complete tranquillity in the cockpit.
What strikes you most is how easy it appears to be to drive the car on the limit, and how unflappable is its composure.
If fiddling with a 911's wheelbase is courting controversy, changing the way it steers might be seen by purists as punching it in the face. The third reason this 911 is like no other before is that hydraulic power steering has been dropped for an electro-mechanical system.
The 991 is lighter than the car it replaces by dozens of kilos, despite bigger, heavier wheels, tyres and brakes and more robust crash structures. It's also very slightly lower.
While the 'S' continues to displace 3.8-litres, the standard car's capacity has been reduced to 3.4-litres. In fact its bore and stroke are identical to those of a Boxster S, though different cams and a new exhaust provide more power – 350bhp at the moment, though homologation has yet to be completed. The power of the 3.8 rises to 400bhp and the rev limit of both engines increases by 200rpm to 7800rpm.
More power and less weight means 4.5sec for the S and 4.8sec for the 3.4-litre car.
The PDK double clutch auto has been sharpened up again but it is the manual that might be introduced that breaks new ground. In effect it is a manually controlled single clutch version of PDK which means, for the first time in any manual production car: seven forward speeds.
This means the old gearbox is no more, so Porsche's Motorsport colleagues working on the next generation of GT3s down in Weissach have nothing to strap to the old race-based flat six that's powered all their cars since 1999.
So this noble motor has been retired, to be replaced by the somewhat simpler, cheaper, more modern and unrelated direct injection engine used by all other 911s. Quite what will be done to it for the new GT3 remains to be seen
The new interior reveals Panamera style and switches.
Is this still a 911? If it is, it will be a rather different one – even more useable, spacious, comfortable and quiet.
The second difference is that the wheelbase has been extended by a substantial (but currently secret) amount.
Two-thirds of the extra space between the wheels is located behind the driver, although it remains a fundamentally two-seat car. Project manager August Achleitner insists the car's character and agility have not been compromised.
The front track has been widened by a similar amount to that of the current 997 GT3 RS.
The suspension's relative spring rates have been slightly increased while the damping has been backed off a little, in pursuit of better small bump isolation.
Whether this has been achieved at the expense of some of that magical 997 ability to make you feel hardwired into the road surface, is simply impossible to say without a steering wheel in your hands.
What you do notice is the disconnect between the savagery with which the car attacks each corner and the almost complete tranquillity in the cockpit.
What strikes you most is how easy it appears to be to drive the car on the limit, and how unflappable is its composure.
If fiddling with a 911's wheelbase is courting controversy, changing the way it steers might be seen by purists as punching it in the face. The third reason this 911 is like no other before is that hydraulic power steering has been dropped for an electro-mechanical system.
The 991 is lighter than the car it replaces by dozens of kilos, despite bigger, heavier wheels, tyres and brakes and more robust crash structures. It's also very slightly lower.
While the 'S' continues to displace 3.8-litres, the standard car's capacity has been reduced to 3.4-litres. In fact its bore and stroke are identical to those of a Boxster S, though different cams and a new exhaust provide more power – 350bhp at the moment, though homologation has yet to be completed. The power of the 3.8 rises to 400bhp and the rev limit of both engines increases by 200rpm to 7800rpm.
More power and less weight means 4.5sec for the S and 4.8sec for the 3.4-litre car.
The PDK double clutch auto has been sharpened up again but it is the manual that might be introduced that breaks new ground. In effect it is a manually controlled single clutch version of PDK which means, for the first time in any manual production car: seven forward speeds.
This means the old gearbox is no more, so Porsche's Motorsport colleagues working on the next generation of GT3s down in Weissach have nothing to strap to the old race-based flat six that's powered all their cars since 1999.
So this noble motor has been retired, to be replaced by the somewhat simpler, cheaper, more modern and unrelated direct injection engine used by all other 911s. Quite what will be done to it for the new GT3 remains to be seen
The new interior reveals Panamera style and switches.
Is this still a 911? If it is, it will be a rather different one – even more useable, spacious, comfortable and quiet.
