Slowly but surely the flat, red spoiler
that’s been jigging, thumping and weaving ahead of me disappears into the
distance. A long straight is enough to finish the job started in the many
braking zones on the A4061 and continued as each corner opened out and the
flat-sixes could zing around to the limiter in second and third. I’m in the
original 996 GT3 – in Speed Yellow, of course; the red spoiler belongs to its
replacement, and this road has shown that the evolution of the GT3 Gen 2 are
long gone, and it’s the newer, 3.8-liter version that’s opened the biggest gap
of all despite a damp surface and barely treaded Michelin Cup+ tires. It’s
probably in another country by now.
The
GT3 has never just been about outright power and grip
So that’s it, then? The GT3 gets fitter,
faster and better with every evolution and we might as well as all go home,
tear down our 997 posters (just me? Oh) and wait for the next game-changer, the
991 version? Not quite. The GT3 has never just been about outright power and
grip. The joy of this stripped-back 911 is that it mixes purity of purpose with
subtlety of feel, chases lap times but never at the expense of driver
involvement, and that it rewards at walking pace even though it’s developed to
be driven flat-out for hours on end without so much as a flicker of its oil temperature
gauge.
So today we’re going to explore each and
every generation of GT3, to understand which one delivers the purest hit of
that ever more speed has already started to erode the enjoyment for the person
sat behind the steering wheel. At a time when the GT3 stares into a new future
with PDK, rear-wheel steering (of the electronic kind, not the tires-on-fire
version beloved of this parish) and the dreaded EPAS, that latter point could
be telling. Has the GT3 been gradually heading away from its roots since year
zero or just focusing in more tightly? Should we be worried or encourage by the
evolutionary process in the cold light of a British ‘spring’ day? There’s only
one way to find out.
The
996 GT3 was launched in 1999
The 996 GT3 was launched in 1999, and when you first fall down into its distinctive winged seats it
feels every single one of its 14 years. Forget that the 996 interior in general
is a little bit crummy – in the context of a car that listed a roll-cage
amongst its options, that seems wholly irrelevant – it’s the scale of the
original GT3 that is almost shocking. It’s tiny. The screen is upright, the
door trims are thin, the side glass almost seems to press against your right
cheek, while your other cheeks skim the road surface. The narrowness,
particularly, really gives the 996 the feel of a classic car. So you twist the
small, convenient old-fashioned key in the ignition barrel and the 3.6-liter
flat-six start with an initial burst of energy and then clatters and rattles at
a grumpy idle. It’s nothing like as loud as the later GT3s with their trick
exhaust valves open but I love the unreconstructed trebly thrashing.
With that noise tingling and pulsating
through the seat and because you sit so low, this GT3 certainly feels special
before it’s even turned a wheel. It gets better though and you know it will as
soon as you slot first and roll away with a little flare of revs. The gearbox
itself has a slightly loose action, almost like it’s not really connected to
anything mechanical. However, although the other controls share the box’s
surprising light weighting, they feel rigidly connected to the chassis and
immediately the car announces its rare precision. There’s not an ounce of play
or flab here. For the first few miles you’re in wonderment of the suppleness of
the damping and the minimal input and effort required to make the car respond
with exacting accuracy. From the outside the 996 GT3 looks so low and so tough,
you almost expect a combative driving experience. The reality is less taxing
but utterly enthralling: it feels light, alert and incredibly nimble.
The
gearbox itself has a slightly loose action, almost like it’s not really
connected to anything mechanical
In one sense the 996 does drive as it looks
– that narrowness is starkly evident by the way you can place it so easily on
the road but also because the sheer mechanical grip you expect isn’t really
there. There’s little under-steer, but the tail always seems to be skipping and
slipping and needs constant attention on these bumpy roads. In fast turns you
don’t really correct the car but the way it always takes on a little angle
really gets and keeps your attention. So it feels incredibly agile, perhaps
almost too flighty if you’re not used to 911s, but the way you quickly adapt to
its balance and learn to drive it right at the point where it is moving around
is a testament to the incredible feel that courses through the entire car. The
steering is just delicious, so good that it almost feels like sensory overload
at first, and the progression of the chassis, the way the front picks up and
the rears dig in on corner exit while the steering wheel jigs and fizzes in
your hands, is just so intuitive. Aside from being too easily deflected by
mid-corner bumps, the 996 GT3 just feels incredibly simple to drive.
There’s
little understeer, but the tail always seems to be skipping and slipping and
needs constant attention on these bumpy roads
It’s fast too. I won’t pretend that this
original car has the savagery that we’ll discover in the 997s, but the engine
is sweet, and beyond 5000rpm this tiny car flies across the ground and deep
into three figures with uncomfortable regularity. The combination of 360bhp at
7200rpm, 2731b ft at 5000rpm and 135kg remains pretty potent. And to think the new
GT3 will have 468bhp… Features ed Henry Catchpole has already forgotten that
the other GT3s exits: ‘I love the way it rides despite having its wheels tucked
up in its arches like a 4.0RS’, he begins. ‘I love the delicacy of the steering
and I love the organically folded rear wing. I think it might be perfect’. I
leave him stroking the, er, well let’s just say he needs some time alone.
