Porsche 911 GT3 Experience at SIC
Winding back the clock, it was in 1981 that i hankered for a Porsche – of course, being much younger and having a family with two kids then I couldn’t afford one, although a re-conditioned Porsche 911 would have cost only RM40,000. Yes, it was that cheap, and I think a new one was just over a hundred grand at that time. So I did the next best thing – I bought a die-cast model, a lime green Porsche 911, which now belongs in my son’s collection, and is probably worth at least twenty times the RM15.00 I paid for it back then.
Since then, I have driven a Porsche a few times, four of them as a motoring media, the Porsche Cayman, which I loved very much, the Porsche Turbo about five years ago, which included a terror ride with Walter Rohl through some narrow but fast roads in Spain, the Panamera in Germany, and lately the Macan. Oh yes, I nearly forgot the year 2003, when I spent nine days as ‘instructor’ for the off-road course in the Porsche World Road Show, in charge of the newly launched Porsche Cayenne.
Yesterday, I was again a guest of Porsche, and this time, it was courtesy of Sime Darby Auto Performance, the local importers and distributors for the Porsche brand. The invite was for a stint in the 911 Porsche GT3 and the 911 Porsche Turbo. It was good to meet up with old friends from Porsche.
On the way to the race track at Sepang, I saw a few drops of rain on my windscreen just a few kilometres away from my destination – glancing up at the sky, I could see heavy clouds that threatened a downpour, and wondered if this would be a wasted exercise, because there was no way, I thought, that Porsche would allow a bunch of petrol head journalists take their very expensive cars out on track if it rained.
True enough, it started drizzling as we stepped out of the briefing room into the pits – I was seventh in line to drive, and as luck would have it, the drizzle became a downpour just as I got into the car. A report came in from the ‘roving’ marshals that the downpour on the South part of the track was bad, resulting in heavy streams of water running across the track, not to mention that there were areas of standing water. I was already in the GT3, and belted up, ready to go – so you can imagine my disappointment at being so near yet so far. I had to get out, but the Porsche people were just as disappointed, and asked us to wait just a while to see if the rain would stop. Just a while became one and a half hours, but our optimism paid off, and the rain slowed down to a drizzle.
The track was still wet, and there was some running water still flowing across some parts of the track, but on the promise that I would take it ‘easy’, I was allowed on the track first. Halfway through, the organizers declared the track safe enough, and I was allowed my four laps.
That made me happy, now that that I would at least get to ‘feel’ the GT3 around the still wet track and hopefully have something to write about. Knowing full well that the chaperones are under orders to keep the cars ‘safe’, I made sure to brake early to give Benjamin ‘confidence’ that I was a ‘safe’ driver, and I kept the speeds down to a decent level, which was about 240 km/h on the straights, and made sure the cornering speeds were kept to a low. Still, the car did step out of line a couple of times. However, with traction control, the Porsche GT3 was easy to drive despite a little twitchy around most of the corners. The extra power also helped to maintain the fun of driving; allowing me to put the power down instantly once the apex of each corner is past. The Porsche GT3 is very forgiving, and if you know how to gently ‘squeeze’ the power out of a turn, it behaves very well.
Later on in the day, with a little extra time left, I was given another lap in the same Porsche GT3, but by this time, the treads had been worn down quite badly; although the track was quite dry, the tail kept on breaking away, and I had to do corrective steering a few times.
The new Porsche 911 GT3 is, for all practical intents and purposes, as road-legal race car. It sits at the pinnacle of the 911 line, and is used for the Porsche Carrera Cup race almost in standard form. The heart of the 911 GT3 is a 3.8 litre six cylinder, horizontally opposed direct injection engine that pulls up to 9,000 rpm, made possible through the use of a dry sump lubrication system. (Dry sump systems use a ‘scavenger’ pump that evacuates oil from a very small ‘sump’ at the bottom of the engine, and pumps the oil through the engine at a high pressure. This system eliminates oil starvation in the engine when the car is cornering, and is more efficient than conventional systems). Engine horsepower is now 350 kW or 475 horsepower, an increase of 40 horsepower over its predecessor, while torque is now 10 Nm higher at 440Nm, peaking at 6,250 rpm. The engine weight has been reduced by 20.9 kg.
The GT3 also runs a longer wheelbase and a wider track than the current Carrera chassis, making it handle a lot better than the standard Carrera. Wheel design incorporates cooling fins, and the 20-inch forged wheels allow for larger brakes (410mm for the front) for better stopping power.
For the GT3, aerodynamics is also improved, with 20 percent more down-force compared to the predecessor GT3. Elsewhere, there are weight savings in the body (13 percent) through the use of more aluminium parts, and even the intake system has seen a 5 kg weight saving through the use of composite materials instead of aluminium. Despite the lightening, torsional rigidity has improved by 25 percent.
I didn’t get to drive the Porsche 911 Turbo S, which has basically the same 3.8 litre engine, but has twin turbos attached, giving it a whopping 560 horsepower and 750 Nm of torque. To cater for the additional power, the drive train for the Turbo S features all-wheel drive, which would have been fun to drive on the wet track – perhaps I could get another chance at it another day.
I know that I wouldn’t be able to afford any one of the above, at least not in the not so distant future; I am just glad I had the chance to try the GT3 out – even 475 horses is good enough. One thing is for sure, Porsche makes great cars, and as the Porsche people have always maintained, a Porsche is a car you can drive everyday to work, and have fun on the weekends with. That probably is why, according to Porsche, 80 percent of their GT3 drivers take their cars to the track.
