First drive: 997 GT3 Gen.2

So the most difficult question on the GT3 mk2 spec… which colour would you go for?

Guards Red selected for the Geneva launch and press cars…

Arctic Silver can also lap the ‘ring in 7:40…

Aqua Blue looking good on the new GT3…

You had said the most desirable car you ever drove was your kermit green
tuttle seventies to millennium spec 911.

How does this RS drive compared with your favorite 911 of all time, the one you sold awhile ago? thank you, JL

You had said the most desirable car you ever drove was your kermit green
tuttle seventies to millennium spec 911.

How does this RS drive compared with your favorite 911 of all time, the one you sold awhile ago? thank you, JL

@Stig: Aqua Blue for sure. That looks absolutely gorgeous in the sun.

chris,
thoughts on how this GT3 compares with your recent retro-911?
thank you, JL

Apples and pears in many ways, surprisingly similar in others. This is non-definitive, having not driven them over the same pieces of road.

Main differences are in spread of ability. Only when you try and make a supposedly ‘all-round’ performance car yourself do you really understand what an achievement something like a GT3 actually is. It does so much so well. The green car’s main advantages are: size, mass and immediacy. Compared to a modern car, the GT3 controls seem completely alive with conversation, next to the green car they’re virtually mute. 3.4 litres on carbs, 320bhp in a one tonne, short and narrow body makes for an experience that the 1400kg GT3 could never match. On a British B road/ smaller A road, a new GT3 wouldn’t see where it had gone. It also had much more wheel travel and much more compliant suspension/tyre side walls: so it had more ride comfort but it would also carry speed over rough surfaces where the GT3 would just become airborne.

BUT, the green car has only 50 percent of the GT3′s everyday ability, at best. It always feels like it is: a cleverly optimised rally car with a hand stitched interior and as much sound deadening as we could allow for the target sub 1000kg weight. Of course, that’s a big part of its appeal too. On slightly larger roads, where it can use that long gearing, The GT3 would probably lose the green car fairly quickly (I’m hesitant on account of the way, in the hands of Richard Tuthill, it left my E92 M3 behind in an oversteering mess through wales last year)

I keep coming back to the GT3′s price -I simply don’t know how they manage to sell the car for that money given the volumes. There are probably only a dozen people who would prefer the green car to the GT3, the rest would want the new car. The irony is that from the dozen, most of them would probably have a GT3 as well.

I have neither, which, in consultant-speak, is a sub-optimal situation.

Apples and pears in many ways, surprisingly similar in others. This is non-definitive, having not driven them over the same pieces of road.

I have neither, which, in consultant-speak, is a sub-optimal situation.

“The green car’s main advantages are: size, mass and immediacy.
Compared to a modern car, the GT3 controls seem completely alive with conversation, next to the green car they’re virtually mute.”

“On a British B road/ smaller A road, a new GT3 wouldn’t see where it had gone. It also had much more wheel travel and much more compliant suspension/tyre side walls: so it had more ride comfort but it would also carry speed over rough surfaces where the GT3 would just become airborne.”

My g%d!! Boy thats quite the statement you have made there!!!! From the standpoint of an everyday driver wanting fun and capability (not so much practicality and luxury)
its looks like Porsche should hire Mr. Tuttle not to mention some of their rally engineers from the 70′s!

Kermit really sounds the better drive, and its really sad what it says about where the sports car industry has gone and continues to go. Indeed we don’t need sports cars with GT-3 or bigger size, weight, the gargantuan wheels and tires, and nor maybe even all that fancy suspension! It really seems that simpler (if better built) really is better! And it really seems that smaller wheels and tires really are the way back to the future! Can I get an Amen! I know this is taboo to say- indeed since when have I ever been shy, ha. (except when not wanting to drag out disagreements with MDSteve!) but it would be something if Mr. Tuttle drove one of his creations to Porsche for a little back-road driving with the Porsche boys in one of their GT-3′s. I think it would be rather sobering for them.

Your talk makes me wish a few things. One that I could have kermit or one of his brothers; that YOU should have kept the darn thing- especially as compared to your 612!, for the purpose of literally benchmarking other so called newly designed sports cars!…and mostly the wish that your message (however quietly stated and placed) GOT out to the manufacturers, that not only do we all as a SOCIETY need to get back to the basics (to the purity of form following function/honesty first and foremost in all endeavors) but so too do manufacturers of all manner of goods need to get back to basics and great craftsmanship, for the betterment of many nations economic base.

Talking out like you did about a product like Kermit, is to me what journalism is all about. I wish more people appreciated what your old car could do, or if not could be shown.

I really don’t look forward to most of today’s cars, but rather to makers long-term product plans…like Ferrari have pledged to make a Ferrari far lighter, and smaller and better and more fun. I hope Chris, you and the DR team can have some effect upon such makers to make such a day happen sooner. thanks for the pure thoughts, JL

“This is non-definitive, having not driven them over the same pieces of road.”

Talking out like you did about a product like Kermit, is to me what journalism is all about. I wish more people appreciated what your old car could do, or if not could be shown.

“This is non-definitive, having not driven them over the same pieces of road.”