Skip to main content

2025 Porsche 911 GT3 First Drive: Flat-Six, Flat Out

A supercar that makes you feel like a superhero

2025 Porsche 911 GT3 driving
  • We traveled to Spain to see what the new Porsche 911 GT3 can do on road and track.
  • The GT3 has a long list of small updates to go along with a big $40,000 price increase.
  • Its 4.0-liter flat-six engine provides one of the absolute best automotive soundtracks.

Over the past 25 years, the Porsche 911 GT3 has grown in several ways. It's larger and more powerful than ever before, but also a lot more expensive — to the tune of $224,495 these days. Compared to last year's GT3, this new price tag represents a $40,000 increase. So let's hit the road and track in Spain to see if Porsche's sports car of sports cars feels like it's really worth that extra coin.

See All for Sale

What's changed

The 2025 GT3's updates are on the subtle side, especially outside. Not much is visually different apart from some tweaks to the front that allow for better brake-cooling airflow, as well as new headlights. Out back, the big wing is even bigger now. Don't like the wing? Porsche will still sell you a more incognito GT3 Touring.

The GT3 continues to use a 4.0-liter flat-six engine, making 502 horsepower, but torque is down slightly to 331 lb-ft due to new emissions regulations. To make up for this, Porsche has shortened the transmission's final drive ratio so that it revs to its 9,000-rpm redline even quicker while also making the engine feel more responsive. Inside, you get to watch the tachometer hit its lofty 9,000-rpm mark on a new digital instrument cluster, where you can position the redline at 12 o'clock where it's most easily viewed.

2025 Porsche 911 GT3 profile

Arguably the biggest change for 2025 is the new Weissach package for the standard GT3 and the Lightweight (Leichtbau) package for the Touring. Both add lots of carbon-fiber bits and baubles to the interior, exterior and even the suspension in an effort to save weight. The Lightweight package costs more than the Weissach, but it also includes new 21-inch magnesium wheels that save 19 pounds of unsprung weight, for just under 50 pounds of total savings. If you want these wheels in addition to the Weissach, it's an additional upcharge.

The biggest changes you'll actually feel involve the front suspension, and they make themselves known the moment you get on a track.

2025 Porsche 911 GT3 driving

On the track

Exiting pit lane at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo dumps you out just after Turn 1, giving you a pretty good run at a tight decreasing-radius left-hander that requires you to scrub off speed quickly to get the GT3 on the right line. But the first time that you really go hard on the GT3's brakes, it's a weird sensation. Like, nothing seems to happen.

Oh, sure, you're slowing down quickly and the seven-speed automatic transmission drops gears seamlessly, but the GT3's nose doesn't dive. That's because Porsche installed a new trailing arm on the front suspension, so the car's pivot point has been lowered. Combined with a smaller bump stop to give the spring more travel and some retuning of the adaptive suspension, it translates to this: a 50% reduction in nosedive under hard braking.

What's unnerving at first quickly becomes confidence-inspiring. The front end of the car is so planted under braking and while cornering that you can push the GT3 harder and harder and it remains rock solid. Ricardo Tormo is a stop on the MotoGP circuit and its series of high-speed turns requires commitment from the driver and the car. As each lap passes, I'm taking the sweepers at greater and greater speeds, almost as if egged on by the GT3 itself. This coupe is so stable and the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires have so much grip that it all makes me feel like a bona fide racing driver. It's the closest to feeling like Lewis Hamilton that I'll ever get.

2025 Porsche 911 GT3 rear 3/4

The shortened gear ratio also makes keeping the engine high in the rev range that much easier. As the only non-turbocharged 911 variant, maximum torque doesn't hit until north of 6,000 rpm, and that's really where you want to keep the transmission revving while on track. Because of the retuned final drive ratio, in corners where you had to downshift in the old GT3, you can now just leave the new car in the same gear since it jumps back into the powerband so quickly, helping to preserve the car's balance.

The biggest challenge when driving the GT3 is keeping the revs up so you can make full use of the grip on exit. And to do that, it does require using the paddle shifters. Porsche's dual-clutch gearbox is great in other 911s, but those vehicles all make a lot more torque down low thanks to their turbocharged setups. After a few laps letting the computer do its thing, I'm enjoying driving the GT3 much more when I shift gears on my own.

My favorite thing about the GT3 — especially on a track — is that Porsche managed to make everything feel so mechanical. Most modern performance cars add layers that blur the connection between human and machine. And to be sure, there's a lot of technology working beneath you in the GT3 as well. But to the driver it remains an incredibly visceral experience; the steering and suspension still provide a ton of feedback. There are few things in the world that are as satisfying as driving a Porsche 911 GT3 at wide-open throttle.

2025 Porsche 911 GT3 Touring driving

On the road

Touring models are like undercover GT3s, eschewing the giant gooseneck wing in favor of a more subtle approach, with the same deployable spoiler you'll find on other 911s. This is what I'm driving on the street, though because this car has the Lightweight package, it means you get carbon-fiber bucket seats, which are not what I'd choose for daily driving. At least the bucket seats fold forward now, so if you add in the no-cost rear seats, it's easier to put people back there. Luckily, this being a Porsche, even if you do still want the Lightweight package for the wheels, the carbon fiber and, most importantly, the shortened gear shifter (more on that below), you can swap in the 18-way power-adjustable sport seats. That's what I'd do.

The Lightweight package's most important addition is the stubby gear shifter. Combined with the lightened flywheel taken from the 911 S/T, this makes for an absolutely fantastic manual transmission. The shifts are appropriately notchy with clearly defined gates, and the clutch pedal is well weighted and predictable. If I were going to use my GT3 on the track, I'd go for the automatic transmission because it simply makes the car quicker, but for a weekend car, the manual is absolutely the way to go.

One consequence of the shorter gear ratio is that the engine does sit at higher revs while cruising. At highway speeds, it sits just about 3,000 rpm, and that makes the cabin quite loud. Granted, the noise from that engine is great, but after a while, it becomes ... a lot. The suspension is a touch firm for street duty, but who cares? If that bothers you so much, there are other 911s that are softer.

2025 Porsche 911 GT3 interior

Is it worth it?

The GT3 does command a supercar's ransom; the as-tested price of both vehicles I drove was right around $290,000. You also have to come to grips with the fact that most of the other Porsche 911 variants are now quicker to 60 mph than the GT3 and have a lot more torque — even the Carrera S beats it from 0 to 60 mph (3.1 seconds vs. 3.2 seconds), not to mention the new GTS with its excellent T-Hybrid powertrain (2.9 seconds).

But none of the 911s can dance like the GT3. It takes corners harder and faster than anything else in the lineup, and none of those cars can match its soundtrack. It's a 911 that's been tailor-made to get around a circuit at great speeds and give its driver the utmost confidence.

The new GT3 is the best one ever made. And if you can find your way behind the wheel of one on a good track in good weather, it offers one of the most transcendent automotive experiences you can possibly have — regardless of price.

2025 Porsche 911 GT3 driving