Yahoo Autos 2018 Porsche 911 GT3
Sometimes, even on a racetrack, it's not all about speed. Sometimes it's about the love of the game, and few elements of any car today will make you fall in love faster or harder than the GT3's six-speed manual. Depress the clutch, feeling the point where the disc fully separates. Notch that naturally weighted shifter into reverse. Feel the clutch grab, then feather its engagement as you back out of your parking spot. You've moved a single car length and already you're certain that this is the perfect manual transmission. If not for its $150,000 price tag, this would be the ideal tool for teaching teens how to drive a manual.
Or not, because adolescent brains are worse at impulse control than fully developed ones. Aston's chassis might whisper evil nothings in your ear, but the Porsche's 9000-rpm flat-six is a siren call for extralegal speeds. Above 6000 rpm, the soundtrack picks up an edge that takes over as the needle howls around the tach. It's so frenzied at redline that all you can think about is grabbing the next gear and feeling that smooth swell of power pull you to nirvana again. Who cares that third tops out at 109 mph and fourth reaches 140? There's probably not a cop around at exactly this moment! Without turbos, the 911 GT3's flat-six is down more than 160 pound-feet compared with the V-8s, but revs are a far more stirring way of making power. And the GT3 is efficient, too. The Aston's gearing gives it a huge advantage in EPA testing, but on our drive, the Porsche eked out victory by a single mpg.
The GT3 was unanimously our favorite highway mount. As senior online editor Mike Sutton put it, "Despite its exquisite feel and performance, one of the most impressive traits of this car is how docile, comfortable, and easy to live with it is." Its stance tucks the tires so snugly into the wheel wells that you half expect the car to pop up on hydraulics before driving away, but the GT3 suffers no impact harshness or noise over bumps, ignoring imperfections like a grand tourer.
And the engine's home behind the cabin makes the 911 feel as if there's nothing but legroom in front, with not even our six-foot-seven driver needing to put the seat all the way back. The view out is positively panoramic. One of us compared the Aston's with the Chevrolet Camaro's pillbox visibility; the 911's is more like the commanding view from a UPS truck. It is loud, however-the space where the rear seats live in other 911s functions here as a big echo chamber for the buzz saw lurking behind. Merge onto the highway and you'll be happy the exhaust has a (relatively) quiet mode.
Dive down an exit ramp into some Appalachian foothills, though, and you'll be happier still. Your fingertips tingle with feedback from the front 245/35ZR-20 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s, which generate enormous grip despite being the narrowest in the test. It helps that they're supporting just 40.1 percent of the GT3's weight, which, at 3303 pounds, is more than 400 pounds lighter than either of the other cars.
The Porsche combines the Mercedes-AMG's unflinching front-end grip with the Aston Martin's willingness to rotate, its nose staying attached to the pavement as the tail responds in minute degrees to load shifts without evincing the slightest shred of spooky oversteer that old guys will tell you 911s are prone to. It's been a while since snap oversteer was much of a concern for 911s. Unload the rear end, let the car pivot, and then ease back into the throttle; those wide, sticky Cup 2s squatting under the flat-six lock the GT3 onto its heading and it screams out of the turn, tail tacked in place.
At the cars' respective top speeds, the GT3's standard fixed rear wing generates some 230 more pounds of downforce than the 110 pounds of the Touring package's relatively modest retractable spoiler, but that's a difference you'll likely only notice on a very fast racetrack. As much as we like a Q-ship, some of us feel that a 9000-rpm engine deserves a more exciting visual package. We argued endlessly about whether we prefer the look of the GT3 with or without its wing. But either way, we all agreed that we prefer the GT3.
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