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Porsche 911 GT3 (2025) review

One last run out for the normally aspirated Porsche 911 GT3 - how does it fare?
Matt Robinson
Matt Robinson

Published on January 29, 2025

Having celebrated its 25th birthday in 2024 and having thrilled us across four distinct generations so far, the Porsche 911 GT3 is back for another outing - although this is almost certainly going to be the last time we see it with its howling 4.0-litre flat-six engine.

And Porsche has put in a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure the GT3 can meet various emissions and safety regulations worldwide, which have - on the face of it - seemed to force this model to take a backwards step. This is because it has less torque than its immediate predecessor, it has gained a little bit of weight and its exhaust has been fitted with another two catalytic converters, potentially quelling the searing soundtrack the GT3 normally has as it approaches its stellar 9,000rpm redline.

So, have we got a watered-down GT3 with which to round off the lineage? Or is this, in fact, the most talented of a very exalted breed of 911? Time to find out, as we drive a winged version on the Circuit Ricardo Tormo track outside Valencia, then sample the more visually demure Touring on some of the stunning roads in the mountains to the north of the motorsport venue.

How much is the Porsche 911 GT3 in Ireland?

Brace yourselves: thanks to its highly specialist nature, plus the fact that while its engine can now meet the latest stringent emissions regulations, it emits 310g/km of CO2 at a minimum, the Porsche 911 GT3 has a starting price in Ireland of €301,020. That’s set against an entry-level figure for a 911 coupe of €195,840, putting it into some kind of context.

Then there are the options. Every Porsche can be added to with an extensive list of costly extras, to personalise them to their owners’ every whim, but the GT3 has some truly hardcore bits of kit that can push the ticket a lot higher than €301,020.

The winged GT3, for example, has a 12kg-lightening option called the Weissach Package, previously only available to the more extreme GT3 RS variant, which fits lots of carbon-fibre parts to the 911 inside and out. The cost for this? A hefty €32,742.

If you want the glorious, forged magnesium wheels to trim another 9.1kg off the GT3’s kerb weight, they’re another €23,068... on top of the Weissach Package, and you can’t have the rims without that. The lightweight carbon-fibre bucket seats are €9,039. Some of the paint finishes, specifically in the Legends series, are €5,410; yet if that’s not enough, you can drop €17,282 on ‘Paint to Sample through Exclusive Manufaktur’. Eek.

And don’t think the Touring is somehow cheaper despite its meeker looks - it costs the same as the winged car, while its Lightweight Package (the analogue of the Weissach on the regular GT3) is an eye-watering €48,994. At least you get the forged magnesium wheels as standard in that bundle, but still...

What does the outside of the Porsche 911 GT3 look like?

As with all ‘992.2’ updated eighth-generation 911s, the GT3’s visual appearance hasn’t been changed too much. All forward illumination and signalling is now incorporated into the oh-so-familiar circular headlamp clusters of the 911, so the front bumper and air intakes have been cleaned up and resculpted accordingly.

Similarly, at the back, the full-width light strip has a bolder look, while the standard forged aluminium wheels have had five axial cut-outs incorporated, saving 1.5kg over the previous rims. For those who find the winged look of the GT3 too much, specifically that fabulous swan-neck spoiler at the back, the Touring tones down the visuals considerably and will be many people’s preferred option. In short, the GT3 still looks superb, whatever the specification, but it’s not a million miles away from the aesthetics of the 992.1 it replaces.

A look inside the Porsche 911 GT3

The major update for the new GT3’s interior is a fully digital instrument cluster. This has been seen in other updated 911s, although it might cause some controversy here as petrolheads will lament the loss of the centrally mounted analogue rev counter. That said, the new TFT one is easier to read at a glance, while it also performs a neat trick in Track mode by rotating the display anticlockwise to put the glorious 9,000rpm redline right at the top of the dial.

Curiously, where the ‘Curved Display’ has no cowl in other facelifted 911s, Porsche has added an upper moulding that runs the full width of the dashboard in the GT3. This almost looks like the company is admitting there are legibility issues with seeing the digital cluster in bright sunshine; we can’t otherwise think of another reason this extrusion would be here in the driver-focused GT3 and not other models in the range.

Beyond that, it’s the usual excellent-quality 992 cabin, with the GT3-specific differences amounting to the retention of the fixed-key-in-the-dashboard starter mechanism, plus a tall central gear lever for cars fitted with the seven-speed PDK transmission. These, along with the sporty-themed cabin flourishes of the GT3 (there’s Race-Tex microfibre everywhere), serve to make the ambience in the 4.0-litre 911’s passenger compartment even more tantalising than that of any other variant in the wider line-up.

The Porsche 911 GT3’s on-board technology

As we’ve already said, there’s now the 12.6-inch cluster, which pairs up with the 10.9-inch Porsche Communication Management (PCM) infotainment system for a greater amount of digital real estate. Both of these screens work brilliantly and integrate third-party technology into the car’s systems smoothly, but you shouldn’t really be buying a 911 GT3 on the basis of how well it presents Apple CarPlay on its central display. This is a car built primarily for keen driving rather than satisfying technophiles, after all.

How big is the Porsche 911 GT3?

People often moan about how large the 911 has become over the years, and there’s no doubt that if you were to park a 992 next to an original from the 1960s then it would probably look cartoonishly enormous in comparison. But, by modern car standards, the Porsche is by no means gigantic, and it certainly never feels that way when you’re behind the wheel.

It measures 4,570mm long (of which 2,457mm is in the wheelbase), as well as 1,852mm wide and 1,279mm tall, so it’s a reasonably compact thing. Lightweight, too, despite the fact that extra bracing in its doors has contributed to a roughly 21kg weight gain from the old car - but, as the GT3 always comes in at considerably less than 1.5 tonnes in any specification, you can’t accuse this Porsche of being a porker.

Driving the Porsche 911 GT3

Much has been done to the 911 GT3 to make it viable from 2025 onwards, but if you only look at the printed numbers you might be a trifle disappointed. It has gained no more power from its 4.0-litre flat-six petrol engine, the first time in the GT3’s history that the peak output hasn’t climbed with a new derivative (although we’d argue 510hp in 1,439kg of car is more than enough punch for anyone’s reasonable needs), and yet torque is down 20Nm to a peak of 450Nm here.

The reasons for this are that the camshafts, the throttle valves and the exhaust system have all been modified to make the GT3 meet worldwide tailpipe-emissions laws, the latter of which changes the back pressure in the system and sees the marginal torque reduction. To compensate, Porsche has shortened the final-drive ratios in the two gearboxes available (six-speed manual or seven-speed PDK dual-clutch auto) by eight per cent, which makes the GT3 feel even more urgent and insistent through the rev range at the expense of a few km/h of irrelevant top speed.

Then there have been some suspension changes. Although every GT3 before it was a highly focused, driver-centric car, the 992-generation was pretty wild when it appeared back in 2021. Much of what’s fitted to it comes directly from the RSR competition version of the 911, such as the adjustable rear spoiler and enhanced aerodynamics, but it was also the first road-going model in the sports car’s long and illustrious history to gain double-wishbone front suspension. That could make the 992.1 GT3 feel a bit lively in the wrong circumstances, giving it an intimidating air normally reserved for the more aggressive RS derivative.

What Porsche has done here is to shorten the bump stops and give the GT3 longer spring travel as a result - 27mm on the front axle, 24mm at the rear. It has also worked hard to reduce friction in the steering and give the set-up a purer feel, while a learning from the RS has been adopted for the front lower control arms that serves to reduce braking dive by half to 6mm overall.

Therefore, the GT3 is supposed to be more predictable and stable over bumps (or kerbs, more specifically, while it is out on track days), without sacrificing any of its scintillating character. The wonderful news, then, is that all of these changes have worked. As sports cars - or even high-end supercars - go, the 911 can still deliver a truly seminal drive that will sear itself on your memory and serve as a stratospheric dynamic benchmark for years to come.

The steering, for starters, is just perfection. Weighting, feel, consistency of response, accuracy - it’s all spot-on, and it’s controlled by the gorgeous GT Sport steering wheel too, for which we’re going to start a vehement campaign to make it the default item for every car in the industry, it’s so good. The damping is exquisite, allowing just a degree of fluency to the body and wheel control that ensures the GT3 is always comfortable, yet always supremely composed too. Grip is immense, traction arguably even more so, and the new anti-dive braking system really does prove its worth when you’re hauling the Porsche down from 200km/h and more on track, so you won’t ever get near its limits on the road, that’s for sure.

And yet, for all this sheer kinematic supremacy, the star of the show remains the marvellous, marvellous engine. It’s just astonishing. That it can continue, even if only for a few years yet, in an age of electrified everything is something we should all be immensely grateful for, and if you’ve not sampled this 4.0-litre at work yet, then do your best to do so before it is gone for good. Like any Porsche flat-six, it grumbles at low revs, before transforming into a metallic bark in the midrange. But where other units from this esteemed German manufacturer must give up the ghost at around 7,000rpm, it’s at this point the engine in the GT3 metamorphoses into a transcendental noise that defies explanation. A yowl, a scream, a siren’s song - call it what you want, you won’t hear anything like it from any other road-legal car on sale. It’s terrific.

Naturally, the 911 GT3 is not a case of all mouth and no trousers. The musicality of the drivetrain only enhances its genuinely brutal speed, with a linearity of acceleration from idle to redline that’s surely the envy of every other carmaker in the world. On track, it hauls to 160km/h in the blink of an eye, and it’s still pulling like a train at 240km/h and upwards, singing its mellifluous tune as it goes.

The PDK’s a great match for the magical engine on track, although many will want the manual gearbox - complete with a shorter shift lever borrowed from the 911 S/T - for its improved interactivity, but in all honesty there is nothing you can do when specifying the GT3 that will in any way be detrimental to the sensational way it drives. Wing and Weissach, regular GT3, a Touring with plush comfort seats, auto or H-gate... they’re all utterly mind-blowing cars.

The reasons you’d buy a Porsche 911 GT3

Singular of purpose and placing its driver’s unbridled enjoyment behind the wheel as top of its list of many priorities, you’d choose the 992.2 Porsche 911 GT3 for the simple reason that it is one of the greatest-ever performance cars that has graced the face of the planet. It does everything to an impeccable standard and nothing wrong at all (well, unless you’re after decent fuel economy, of course), and if you add into that the fact it is one of the few depreciation-proof cars in the world - it’ll most likely appreciate vastly in value the minute you drive it away from the Porsche dealership - then its exorbitant list price even begins to make some sense.

The added poignancy here is that this is likely to be the last GT3 of them all to come with a normally aspirated engine. If that, as we expect, turns out to be the case, the German company has gone and saved the very best until the final act. It’s a truly tremendous machine.

Ask us anything about the Porsche 911 GT3

If there’s anything about the Porsche 911 GT3 we’ve not covered, or you’d like advice in choosing between it and other cars, you can avail of our (completely free) expert advice service via the Ask Us Anything page.

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Tech Specs

Model testedPorsche 911 GT3
Irish pricing911 GT3 from €301,020
Powertrainpetrol - 4.0-litre horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine
Transmissionautomatic - seven-speed PDK gearbox, rear-wheel drive with electronic limited-slip differential
Body styletwo-door, two-seat coupe
CO2 emissions310-312g/km
Irish motor tax€2,400 per annum
Official fuel consumption13.7-13.8 litres/100km (20.6-20.5mpg)
Top speed311-313km/h
0-100km/h3.4 seconds
Max power510hp
Max torque450Nm
Boot space132 litres
Kerb weight1,420-1,439kg
Rivals to the Porsche 911