Yahoo Autos Porsche 911 GT3 R: Another Reason to Race a Porsche
While most owners of a Porsche 911 would just ask for a better cupholder, a 911 racing team wants to refuel from either side of the car and to adjust the anti-roll bar not by electronic control but with tools in the crew chief’s bare hands. Features that aid driver comfort rank high among Porsche’s minuscule improvements for the 2019 season to one of its four factory race cars, the 911 GT3 R. There’s still no cupholder, though; racing drivers sip their restorative beverages through a tube.
Porsche last updated the GT3 R in 2015 to correlate with the current 991-generation road car. Depending on the series-FIA GT3, IMSA GTD, and other, similar classes-the 4.0-liter flat-six can muster up to 542 horsepower without intake restrictors. That’s 22 ponies more than the “largely identical” production engine in the street-legal GT3 RS, according to Porsche, and it’s still mounted on the rear axle as opposed to being shifted forward as on the even racier 911 RSR. Without silencers or a catalytic converter, opening all six of the GT3 R’s throttle bodies may be the sweetest, most intoxicating path to premature hearing loss.
Compared to last year’s version, the front tire circumference (not the diameter) is up 1.2 inches. The ABS system offers a wider range of bias adjustments for the steel 15.4-inch front and 14.6-inch rear brakes, clamped by six- and four-piston calipers. Porsche claims the revised braking system, in conjunction with the larger front tires and a redesigned double-wishbone suspension, feels stiffer and more consistent over a long race. The car is safer, too, with a new bucket seat fastened to the body in white with more bolts and removable windows and doors, plus a side-impact reinforcement in the driver’s door made from aluminum, carbon fiber, Kevlar, and foam.
Within the revised cockpit layout is a control for air conditioning, a first for the GT3 R. Other comfort options include a heated windshield, interior lighting, a tire-pressure monitoring system, and auxiliary LED headlights. All the usual race equipment comes standard, such as a welded-in roll cage, fire suppression, a roof escape hatch, Cosworth instrumentation, air jack, and a new 31.7-gallon fuel cell that can be switched between left- and right-side refueling. The polycarbonate windows and lithium-ion 12-volt battery should be familiar to Carrera T and GT3 owners, just as its carbon-fiber frunk panel, fenders, wing, and air intakes are shared with the GT2 RS.
Porsche Motorsport North America will take your money right now, but while the cost in Germany is set at the equivalent of $548,000 at current exchange rates), the U.S. price will be “market driven” instead of a direct conversion. Porsche Motorsport will either sell you one direct from its Carson, California, headquarters or personally deliver the car to your private paddock.
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