And, reputedly most significant, there are no longer hydraulic valve adjusters inside a new head design, which reduces the oil pressure you need to lubricate them.
Apparently, new materials used mean that the valves won’t go out of adjustment even if you run one on a dyno, as Porsche has, for 200,000 miles, so they say.
The upshot of all of that is that this engine spins more freely, to a rev limit of 9000rpm, higher even than the GT3 RS and R could. Which sounds rather promising. Peak power comes in at 8250rpm; torque, and only 339lb ft of it, at 6000rpm.
So you’re going to have to work to get it, which you can do via the medium of a seven-speed PDK dual-clutch gearbox or, wonderfully again, the biggest, baddest, shockingest and greatest news of all: the GT3 has again become available with a manual gearbox. Woohoo. Anyway, naturally, this test car is an automatic. No, I don’t know, either, but there you are.
Still, beyond a 10kg difference between the two – the manual car is lighter – the other difference is that the PDK requires a hydraulic pump, which also drives an electronically controlled limited-slip differential. The manual gearbox does without the pump and therefore gets a conventional mechanical limited-slip differential. Given its near-instant shift times and the advantages of wheel slip being electronically monitored, a PDK-equipped car will be faster on a circuit and a manual one will be arguably more fun – a bit more liberal, loose and content to let things slide.
Unleashing the new Porsche 911 GT3 on the asphalt
If you were planning no track work at all, the chances are you wouldn’t go for a GT3 variant of a 911, but the ride, it’s true, isn’t half bad.
It has been a long time since I drove a first-gen GT3 – months since I drove a 911 R, even – and my arse cannot retain memories of ride quality for that long. But the GT3 feels compliant enough to me, while composed and tight, granted; plus there’s always the reassurance that even if you haven’t specified the £1599 nose lift and used it, at least Porsche uses flexible rubber, not carbonfibre, at the front of its cars. The steering is firm and accurate and self-centres nicely. The engine’s smooth. There’s a dual-mass flywheel for refinement – whereas the GT3 RS and R had a lighter, single-mass option – but response still seems to border on the electric, in that terrific, naturally aspirated way of the best high-performance Porsche engines. It’s good fun to thread along. You’ll never operate in the power band on the road – not for long, anyway – but even at lower speeds than its mammoth capability, it’s rewarding and engaging.