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Porsche 911s are, as the youths say, built different. It’s true of the decades-old classics and it’s true of the modern examples too. Take, for example, the incoming 911 GT3. In the pursuit of making sure the engine in its latest and greatest track-ready 911 will withstand years of high-speed abuse, Porsche says it ran the new GT3 at 186 mph pretty much continuously for 3,100 miles, only stopping to refuel.
That’s, like, almost 17 hours of continuous 186-mph driving and, unsurprisingly, Porsche did it at what is probably one of the only spots one could do such a thing, the big, circular Nardò Ring in Italy. The track measures 7.8 miles long which means the GT3 did nearly 400 laps. Porsche says the car had to do this “flawlessly” before passing its stringent endurance standards.
The automaker also says the car was subjected to 160 hours in the wind tunnel so it could get the aerodynamics just right. “The new 911 GT3 generates 50 percent more downforce than its predecessor at [124 mph] just in the ex-works setting. In the setting with maximum downforce, the increase is as much as over 150 percent,” said Porsche aerodynamics engineer Mathias Roll in a press release.
Despite what felt like years of rumors saying this new-gen GT3 would go turbocharged, the track-spec 992 will stick to a naturally aspirated, 502-horsepower, 4.0-liter flat-six that revs to a glorious 9,000 rpm. Essentially the same motor out of the 911 GT3 Cup car, this engine apparently spent a total of 22,000 hours running on the test rig that simulated track driving, much of which involves the throttle being wide open. Whatever owners have in store for their GT3s, it’ll probably be up for it.
The 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 will also cost $20,000 more than before. I mean, somebody’s gotta pay for all that excessive high-speed testing.
As for the Nardò Ring, the track is owned and operated by Porsche Engineering, which spent $40 million and seven months repaving and renovating the place a couple of years ago. Consider that high-speed, 3,100-mile GT3 run Porsche getting a return on its investment.
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