2023 Porsche 911 Convertible

1: This is the Porsche 911 GT3 touring. 2: And on the outset, it's a car that doesn't make a lot of sense. The touring starts as a regular GT3. The track focused 911, with a racing derived suspension, lightweight windows, and a high revving 502 horsepower 6 cylinder engine. You see that massive wing? The one held up by those attention grabbing so-called swan neck structures? Porsche clearly spent time developing it, considering the aerodynamic implications of moving the mounts from the bottom of the wing to the top. And on the touring, they've removed it. In its place, is a spoiler that automatically deploys at certain speeds or at the push of a button if you to have it on while you're parked and if you want to be that kind of person. It isn't adjustable though, beyond being on or off and it clearly can't be as responsible for as much down-force as that swan neck supported rear wing on the regular GT3. That means the Touring is a GT3 that's less capable from an aerodynamic perspective. Which to many, this might seem strange, because the touring costs the same as a regular GT3. What makes this so appealing then? This. You get all of the thrill in the performance from the GT3's engine and chassis but in a package that's far more subtle. You could argue that a Porsche 911 isn't subtle, and you'd be correct if you weren't in Los Angeles. Here, this GT3 touring blends into the scenery like a Toyota Prius or a taco truck. That means the touring will only be recognized by hardcore Porsche aficionados, which may or may not be what you're looking for. Oh, man what a mighty, mighty engine. So much of this driving experience is the same as the standard GT3, so a lot of this might be repetitive to what you've already seen in the video that Alistair did with the GT3 at Road Atlanta, but I just can't help emphasize how much of a thrill this engine is. And the funny thing too, is it's not all that powerful in the realm of $200,000 sports cars produced in the year 2021. 503 horsepower, you can get a Corvette with nearly that. You can get a Mustang with more than that these days. But it's the nature of how this power is delivered. It's that character of the engine and the fact that it rents out to 9,000 RPM. And if you start at a really low engine speed and just let that power build, I'm going to try to do that now, you can just tell by the swell of the power that there's nothing like this else out there. That howl and that experience is just tremendous. And the fact that its peak power above 8,000 RPM means that experience of revving the engine out to its red line is just-- like it's an operatic. There is a sweet, sweet sound and experience of doing that and when you hit the gear change, the howl you get on up shift is just beautiful. There are much quicker cars than the GT3 and the GT3 touring. The claim 0-60 time isn't that impressive, again, in today's world of Tesla Model S's, right? But when you drive it, when you get down to the experience, you don't care. And what's better, is that you can experience this with a six speed manual transmission. Yeah, you get a six speed manual or Porsche's dual clutch automatic transmission in this car, whichever one you want. Now, more people will probably choose that dual clutch automatic, because it makes it quicker, it makes it more accessible. But of course, the elitist purists will definitely want this six speed manual. It's the one I'd take too, because there's something about the experience of operating machinery, complex machinery, that's working at the peak level that it can. The experienced of engaging with that system, choosing the gears, yes, it's not the quickest way to do it, but it is satisfying in a way that you can't really logic out. And that works for the GT3 touring, because this is a car that doesn't really logic out. Its a less aerodynamic version of the GT3. So you kind of get that with the package of the car. I love that. It does have auto rev matching downshifts. That was all the car. You can turn that off and on depending on how much you want to-- you can turn that off and on depending on how much you want to engage with the gas and the clutch pedal and do that. That's up to you. You've of course, got a sport exhaust system that you can turn off and on to make it louder. That should always be on. And that's how I've got this thing configured. This is a nice six speed manual, too. It's not a really tight gear ratio, it's not like a click, click. It does take a bit of effort to muscle through. Not a high effort, but I've been in snappier gearboxes, for sure. I've experienced snappy gearboxes. This one feels good though, the mechanical action or the movement that you feel going from gear to gear is very pleasing and very nice. I should say that when the duty GT3 touring was announced with a manual transmission, there was word that the manual would not be available on this car in California, the official state of no fun. That has since been addressed, and yes, you can now get the GT3 touring with a manual in California. They figured that one out, so we can bypass all that now. Let's talk about handling. Yeah, the GT3 does handling. So the big news for this generation, the GT3, was the switch from a front strut suspension to a control arm, or wishbone style front suspension, as derived from Porsche's RSR Racing Series. What does that mean when you actually experience the car on the road? Well, not much, unless you're really driving fast, to be honest. This is a car, though, that has a tremendous amount of grip, a tremendous amount of stick, a tremendous amount of feedback to the driver, and it's going to do things when you throw it around a corner that makes you smile. The steering is in typical Porsche fashion. The steering is light, but precise. And that's good, because light steering, if it has the accuracy behind it, light steering means you can drive quickly for a long time without feeling fatigued. That's an important bit. Now, as for grip, a lot of that's going to come from the tire and boy, how does this car have a lot of tire. The front wheels are 20 inches in diameter. The rears are 21 inches in diameter. You get a Michelin pilot's sport cup 2 on your GT3 touring. And if you so choose, you can get the cup 2 R variant, which is an even stickier more ludicrous version of the tire that has incredibly more grip, but is dramatically worse in low temperature and wet weather situations. It's such to the point that you can't actually click that tire option in the Porsche configurator online, you have to ask the dealership to install it for you and once you do, I'm told, they give you a very careful conversation about what a car on that kind of tire actually is like and what you should know about it. But that's beyond the point. This is a car with a lot of grip. And a lot of brake too. On that end you have massive rotor's front and rear, optional carbon ceramics as well, just again, like the regular GT3. This car is on the standard. Brake rotor does not have the optional carbon ceramics. And that's OK for when a car intends to be-- for what it intends to be a street car, yeah, maybe you don't need to spend that money on the optional carbon ceramics. The stopping power is more than adequate for anything that you should be doing on a mountain road, even when you're driving fast. I think one of the most impressive things about the GT3 touring and 911's in general, is that there's a lot of technology happening between me and the driving experience and most of it is invisible. This car with a manual transmission gets a [INAUDIBLE] locking differential. If you have the dual clutch automatic, you get electronically locking differential. I spent time with both outside of the GT3, of course, they feel great. You have rear axle steering, so the rear wheels turn in and out of phase with the front wheels by a very small amount to increase low speed nimbleness and increase high speed stability. There's advance stability control, and traction control, and so on and so forth. But you don't notice this stuff when you're driving. When you're moving in this car, your experience is primarily the handling quality, the steering agility, the sound and response of the engine, and you just end up smiling a whole bunch. And that's really what makes these cars work so well. With a car like the GT3 touring, it just amplifies all those experiences. You have more horsepower, a higher red line, it's just more of that thrill and that-- just makes the experience way more sweet. Yes, this is a lot of car, but as it should, because it's a lot of price and you get a lot of performance with it. I mean, hey, this is a car that still has a top speed of just under 200 miles an hour, should you ever find a place that can explore it. This is a car that still is relatively lightweight. 3100, 3200 pounds, depending on how you configure it based off Porsche's claims. And so what if it doesn't have a big bear wing? This is actually how I prefer to have a GT3, assuming I could afford one, because let's face, it you're not going to use all that arrow when you're just commuting to cars and coffee in the morning. So that's the driving experience. Let's talk about the interior experience. Yes, this is laid out exactly like the current generation 992 911 with all the pluses and minuses pluses being a terrific steering wheel, this shifter is unique to the GT3. It's placed really well, except if you have a cup in the cup holder, then it's not so great. But that's always been a problem with Porsche's. The steering wheel feels terrific, but it also blocks the outer more windows of this gauge cluster, so you can never quite see exactly what all the gauges are showing you at once. That's always been an issue, but man, the center gauge cluster, the center tachometer, just looks beautiful. It looks like a finely tuned time piece. A fancy watch. You know. And the way they control the tac-- the way they control the needle in the tac, yes, I'm sure they're not giving you the honest representation of what actually is happening in the engine. I'm sure they're damping that needle to make it seem more smooth than it actually is. But you know what, that's OK. Because it looks good and it works well. The layout of all the controls and buttons feel nice, except for the extensive use of piano black, which has already collected a bunch of smudges. And then, we have to talk about these bucket seats. If you are sized like me, which is 5'10, 175 pounds, avoid these bucket seats at all costs. If you are tall, like Alistair, or presumably your average German, these seats are going to be fine. If you are of average height though, these seats are desperately uncomfortable, because they are full bucket seats and that means your adjustment range is forward and aft and up and down. There's no recline, and as far as I can tell, there's no tilt. And that makes these seats incredibly uncomfortable for long distances and actually, in my-- for me personally, for the way my body is sized, hurts the driving experience. Not enough to make me not want to drive it though, it's still a terrific car, but at least it's an option that you can avoid. 2: My favorite part about the Touring is the honesty. You don't buy a GT3 with a wing because you care about lap times. And you don't get one with a manual transmission to brag about it 0-60 acceleration. There are quicker all electric sedans for half the price, for crying out loud. Futher, the GT3's racetrack optimized design means the touring has a rough ride and a loud interior. When combined with those optional and super body size specific bucket seats, you'll think twice about taking this on long road trips. Yet, the touring sticks in my mind and that persistence highlights what makes it so special. It retains the thrill of the GT3 from the steering response and handling to that Russia power as you approach 9,000 RPM, but it's all wrapped in a far less attention seeking package. And the result frees you from needing to care about anything other than the drive.