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Autocar staff
http://www.autocar.co.uk
04/24/2008 - 05:41 PM
London, UK
"Once aboard this car you are little more than another moving component..." (Autocar photo) » More Photos
You do not approach the Porsche 911 GT2 like you do most other cars. For starters, it’s an awkward enough machine merely to climb aboard, thanks to a pair of huge bucket seats whose side bolsters are so pronounced that you actually have to take a run-up to avoid being snagged on the way in.
Then there’s the small matter of the GT2’s power. And its torque. It has 523hp at 6500rpm and 502lb ft from just 2200rpm, and that 502lb ft is available not just from 2200rpm but for the whole time between there and 4500rpm.
Oh yes, and it weighs an impressively lithe-sounding 3175 lbs and has only two big tires with which to deploy its monumental performance. That’s correct – unlike the heavier, less-powerful regular 911 Turbo, the GT2 is rear rather than four-wheel drive. Which means it’ll tear your hands off at 50 paces and discard what’s left of you into the gutter if you try to drive it like any normal fast car, or even any normal 911.
Suede-rimmed steering wheel is as close as the interior gets to flashy. (Autocar photo) » More Photos
Along with the fact that it costs an astonishing $192,560, that’s the bad news pretty much in a nutshell. Just about everything else about the new GT2 is sensational with a capital S. It even rides half-decently across your average country road, and that’s a real first for Porsche’s fastest production car.
The two previous versions of the GT2 were both similarly endowed
To create the GT2, Porsche turned to its motorsports department, in effect giving its engineers a 911 Turbo and asking them to go to town. So they started with the engine, and about 10 zillion development hours later they came back with the GT2 unit.
Given that it shares the same 3600cc capacity with the Turbo engine and is, if you look closely enough, identical internally as well, you do wonder what Porsche’s engine folks spent their time doing in this instance.
The answer is rather more subtle than the usual “pistons, conrods and crankshaft” number, but no less effective. Truth is, Porsche optimized the engine in the first place, so there wasn’t much that could be done to uprate the motor from within. So instead they concentrated on making it breathe better – much better – and the result is an extra 50hp and maximum torque characteristics that make the regular Turbo seem decidedly peaky. If you’re lucky enough ever to have driven a 997 Turbo, you’ll realize how big an achievement this is.
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