Porsche 911 GT3 (992.2) 2025 review – the best GT3 yet?

Our introduction to the new – not clean-sheet new but thoroughly updated, ‘992.2’ generation – Porsche 911 GT3 begins with a presentation. Nothing unusual there: this is standard car-launch fare. Senior figures and key players behind the car’s creation summarising the key points with the aid of a deck of slides, static cars to walk around on stage, and isolated components on display. So far, so normal.

What’s more unusual is some of the information they’re choosing to share with us. Not least, research into what their existing customers wanted from this new car. The GT3’s project manager, Jörg Jünger, shows us data from a survey of 2000 Porsche GT customers around the world, asking them their likes, preferences and – pertinently – wishes for future GT models. 

The vast majority prefer a high-revving naturally aspirated engine to turbocharging; they’re also happy to prioritise performance over everyday comfort (with audible brake and axle noises, for example); they’re not big on driving modes, and they’d very much rather their car be rear-wheel drive than all-wheel drive. And when it comes to powertrain, only nine per cent consider a hybrid powertrain to be ‘very much fitting’ for a Porsche GT car, and 33 per cent consider it ‘not at all fitting’. (For fully electric, the ‘not at all fitting’ vote rises to 58 per cent.)

2025 Porsche 911 GT3 engine, gearbox and technical highlights

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Those customer wishes have ensured that the GT3 hasn’t evolved into a different animal in its journey from 992 to 992.2. ‘The customer is king,’ says Jünger. Unlike the recently launched 911 Carrera GTS, there is no hybrid element to the powertrain, and as ever there are no turbochargers in the GT3’s engine bay. Its 4-litre flat-six is still naturally aspirated, and it still revs to 9000rpm. Providing you tick the appropriate lightweight option boxes it weighs the same 1420kg as its predecessor, despite packing more equipment and considerable measures to meet stricter safety and emissions regulations.

That’s the other unusual thing about this introduction: the level of detail on just how tricky it’s been to homologate the GT3 for various markets around the world without losing those attributes its customers demand. To comply with American exhaust particulate regs 40 per cent tougher than those the 992.1 GT3 had to meet in 2021, there are now four catalytic converters. (‘It’s not something we like very much, but we have to do it,’ says Jünger.) The individual throttle bodies have been redesigned, camshafts adapted for longer valve opening times, and all manner of measures have been undertaken to optimise cooling. 

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But the magic 9000rpm rev limit remains, as does the same 503bhp peak power output. Peak torque is a little less than before – 332lb ft rather than 347 – and to compensate Porsche has given the car lower gear ratios. You can still spec the GT3 with a six-speed manual gearbox or a seven-speed PDK, and both have eight per cent shorter gearing than before. (The manual unit is the same as that fitted to the limited-run Porsche 911 S/T, incidentally.) A little bit of top speed is sacrificed as a result of the shorter gearing – although it’s still north of 190mph – but tractive force on the wheels is stronger all the way through the gears. And this has never been a car about top speed anyway; of all 911s, the GT3 is all about corners. 

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All the driver assistance systems that are now essentially legally required are here – including lane keep assist, speed limit warning, and so on – but a physical switch on the dash brings them all up on the touchscreen swiftly, enabling you to toggle them on and off without digging through various menus. ‘I’m sure you’ll agree with me that no customer will buy a GT3 for its driver assistance systems,’ Jünger says.

Straight from launch the new car is available in two body styles: the ‘regular’ winged GT3, and the more understated 911 GT3 Touring, without the rear spoiler. For the first time – also due to customer demand – the Touring is now available with the option of rear seats. 

Until now, the GT3 has always been a strict two-seater, not least because its one-piece bucket seats could not fold to enable access to the rear of the cabin. New folding carbonfibre seats have been engineered to solve this, but you’ll need to pay an additional £5390 if you want them in lieu of the standard electric sports seats. Whichever body style and whichever gearbox you go for, the starting price in the UK is the same: £157,300.

So, before we drive the new GT3, two things are clear: this is the car (or rather, multiple shades of the same car) that Porsche’s customers want, and it’s been harder than ever for its GT engineers to give them what they want. Time to find out if they’ve succeeded. The presentation stage is within a garage complex at the Ricardo Tormo circuit, Valencia, eastern Spain. To our right, in the pitlane, is a fleet of PDK-equipped GT3s. To our left, in the paddock, is a line of wingless GT3 Tourings, some manual, some PDK.

2025 Porsche 911 GT3 on track

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We’re on track first, and a couple of GT3s are already out there cutting laps. As they streak past the other side of the pit wall, the hallmark flat-six shriek sounds as evocative as ever. It still sounds pretty fruity from inside the car, too. The engine starts with Porsche’s familiar twist-switch built into the dash, almost like an ignition key, rather than a button as per other 992.2 models. 

Andreas Preuninger, director of the GT model line, isn’t a fan of buttons, and nor is Jünger: ‘If you spin on track and have to restart the engine, when it’s a button, you might be unsure whether you’ll restart the engine or switch off the ignition when you press it. With a rotary switch, there’s no doubt.’

Suffice to say, track capability is as core a part of the GT3’s brief as ever. You sit nice and low in the new bucket seat, buried in the bodyshell as you would be in a racing car. There’s another neat touch to the seat’s design: you can push-click-release the headrest cushion, to make it easier to wear a helmet on track without it being bumped by the seat. It’s all been thought through.

Ahead of you is the new, all-digital instrument panel. Controversially, there’s no analogue rev-counter, although its digital replacement is still in the traditional dead-centre position, and Porsche claims it is easier to read at night. To that end, it has a slightly bigger font than before too. In Track mode, the dial rotates to place its red line at 12 o’clock, as per a classic competition car.

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Aside from Track, which gives the bare minimum of information, including temperatures and tyre pressures, there are two other display modes: Normal and Sport, the former with all the features you’d expect – music, nav and so on – and the latter giving you extra gearshift indicator graphics. We’ll set it to Track for now. When in Valencia, etc.

The first thing that strikes you is the stability, particularly under braking. The 992.2 GT3 has learned a few new suspension tricks from both the 992.1 Porsche 911 GT3 RS and the limited-run 911 S/T. As per the RS, there’s a lower pivot point for the front double-wishbone suspension, giving the GT3 similar anti-dive properties. 

The RS’s aerodynamic teardrop-shaped front trailing arms, which contribute to downforce at high speeds, have been adopted, too. Valencia has a few tricky compound corners with curved approaches under braking but the GT3 is never caught out. There’s reassuring feel and response through the brake pedal, and stopping power is consistent from the six-piston monobloc front calipers  (four-pot at the rear) and optional composite discs.

Pitch and roll are both so well controlled that the GT3 feels almost like a racing car. Consistent like a race car too: as we up the pace and braking zones and tyre loads become heavier, the GT3 responds and behaves in the same way lap after lap. Even when the tyres – Michelin Cup 2 Rs in this case; Pirellis and Goodyears are also homologated – begin to get hot, the balance doesn’t change dramatically.  

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The software for the adaptive dampers has been updated for faster response, helping both ride comfort and wheel control on rougher roads, while the bump-stops have been redesigned, allowing greater spring travel and smoother control as the suspension begins to reach the limits of its travel. It allows a more linear response, which helps on the limit in situations when the suspension is nearly out of travel – in compressions, for example, but also when clobbering kerbs on track. 

Traction is immense – always a strong suit of 911s, given their weight distribution, of course – and the electronically controlled differential lock and torque vectoring in this PDK-equipped car work very well. Out of slow corners, there’s that satisfying sense of the car’s tail hunkering down and it propelling itself forward.

The naturally aspirated engine is satisfying, too, in both sound and feel. It still has a singular note all of its own at high revs, and power and torque delivery are both so smooth that it flatters your own throttle control. Despite the lower gearing, it’s rare to overwhelm the rear tyres (you might argue that wide Cup 2 R tyres are overkill for a car with such progressive torque delivery). 

It’s rare to miss an apex at the front, too: the GT3’s front axle is keen, and if you do ever begin to blur into understeer, easing off and tweaking the wheel will quickly bring it into line. Despite being a twisty circuit, Valencia is also a relatively wide, fast one and, once you’re acclimatised, the GT3’s straight-line speed begins to feel unremarkable. The speed it can carry through corners and its stability, on the other hand, really are remarkable.

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Despite all that grip, it’s still a car with plenty of tactility and adjustability. Perhaps a certain type of driver might crave a wilder car with a more sledgehammer torque delivery, but this isn’t that kind of car: the combination of precise, neat and tidy handling yet a malleable balance at the limit remains one of the GT3’s key strengths.

The PDK gearbox shifts as swiftly and crisply as ever in both manual and automatic modes, and in Track it downshifts so promptly in auto that you can leave it to its own devices as you learn a new circuit without ever being caught in the wrong gear at the wrong time. There’s still a physical lever to put the car in gear, or to push-pull to shift manually instead of using the paddles if you wish (when your hands have shifted position on the wheel at hairpins, for example). 

Adopting the T-Hybrid set-up from the 911 GTS, which incorporates an electric motor in an eight-speed PDK transmission, would have meant a 30kg heavier transmission, Preuninger explains, with a secondary penalty in weight distribution. That transmission’s by-wire make-up would also have meant losing the physical lever. It’s nice that the lever survives: now that the majority of new cars have a small switch to select forward or reverse motion, it’s a welcome extra layer of tactility.

Back in the pitlane, there’s a physical lever – and three pedals – as we hop into the passenger seat of a manual GT3 for a ride with racing driver Jörg Bergmeister, who played a key role in the new GT3’s development. He’s not shy about using Valencia’s kerbs and explains (at lower revs, that is; up in the 9000rpm stratosphere, the GT3 is still pretty noisy) that the new bump-stop arrangement helps in this regard. ‘It’s more precise – the damper platform absorbs bumps more smoothly,’ he says, shortly before an assault upon one of Valencia’s beefier kerbs and a two-wheeled flight through a chicane.

2025 Porsche 911 GT3 on the road

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So that’s the track box thoroughly ticked. The new GT3 feels more stable and precise than ever but still a car that’s equally flattering and thrilling to lap at speed. Consistent, too; you sense that it could do this for lap after lap without flagging. What about the road? 

Swapping into an Oak Green Touring, the bucket seat somehow feels even lower without the context of a pitlane’s surroundings. The seat grips your torso firmly but comfortably, leaving your hands free to concentrate on the steering. Padding out of the paddock and onto the road, it’s a little light in weight for my taste, but its sense of precision is lovely. Jünger cites the electric power steering as the most innovative aspect of the 992.2 GT3. 

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It’s related to that of the 911 S/T and incorporates automatic friction compensation software. ‘The problem with steering is always friction,’ Jünger says, ‘and the way it changes with temperature, and with wear over time.’ The latest EPAS system adjusts its response according to wear and temperature, the aim being a consistently direct, smooth feel. It’s a little less nervous just off-centre compared with its predecessor, again partly due to customer feedback, some owners reporting that their cars felt more sensitive than they’d like at high speed on the autobahn. So there’s now a little more ‘sneeze factor’.

The wheel doesn’t move around much in your hands; more of the ‘noise’ is filtered out than in previous 911s. You may or may not like that; some people like the hiss of a needle on a record, some like digital clarity. Regardless of taste, the steering works wonderfully as the roads begin to twist and rid themselves of traffic. 

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You appreciate its measured directness more on the road than you do on the track, where you’re making bigger inputs against higher tyre loads. You rarely need to move your hands on the wheel, clipping apices with smooth, easy inputs. As with the previous GT3, there’s rear-wheel steering in play too, but it’s subtle in its operation and never feels intrusive.

The ride is still firm on the road, but it does have a more rounded edge than the previous GT3 Touring, which could really jostle you about in the seat on bumpier surfaces. The shorter gearing does make this six-speed manual car a little buzzy on the motorway, though. At 80mph the engine is spinning at more than 3000rpm, which might get a bit wearying on a long journey, as it does in the similarly short-geared S/T. 

You wonder if it would be a better long-distance car if sixth were taller, more of an overdrive. But the ratios work beautifully on winding roads. The gearing of previous GT Porsches has arguably been a little on the long side, and the shorter ratios mean you’re more likely to use the full sweep of the engine’s revs without straying into irresponsible road speeds. If 9000rpm is a USP for the GT3, the lower gearing gives you more opportunities to reach it. Third gear is still flexible enough for many B-roads, so you don’t need to spend too much time grabbing gears and can lope along in third and fourth with an occasional dip into second for tight corners.

The manual gearbox is easier to get to grips with than that of the S/T with its tiny clutch and flyweight flywheel, but it still demands concentration. You can’t dawdle – it rewards positive, well-timed shifts. No bad thing. You can achieve perfect rev-matched downshifts every time by switching on the auto-blip function, unless your surname is Bergmeister – on the track he was DIY’ing his downshifts, as he prefers to use a fraction more revs than the software. They were butter-smooth every time, even when trail-braking and downshifting into the apex. How annoying.

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The gearlever is slightly shorter than standard in this car, as part of the Leichtbau (Lightweight) pack – a reassuringly/terrifyingly expensive £29,223 option bundle that includes forged magnesium wheels (as per the S/T), carbonfibre for the roof, rear anti-roll bars and coupling rods, lightweight door panels and carbon bucket seats. It saves 22kg, and it’s the first time you can spec the Touring in this way.

Preuninger describes it as a sharper-than-ever Touring, ‘maybe a little s/t with no capitals’. In this spec, it’s a noisy car on the road. Deleted sound-deadening elements mean you can hear the diff whining and the exhaust system in full cry – and it still sounds great at high revs, it has to be said. Depending on your standpoint, the Touring might be a more useable road car specced with a little more comfort; or you might enjoy pushing it in a more road-racerish, S/T direction. Or be contrary and spec the rear seats plus the Lightweight pack. Customer is king, after all. 

In stripped-out spec the GT3 can feel as raw as ever in terms of sound and immersion. Dynamically, meanwhile, it’s so calm and stable at all road speeds you could argue it’s almost too polished. But that would be unfair. The defining factors of the GT3’s appeal have always been its sheer responsiveness and its sense of precision. The 992.2 possesses both in spades. 

Rolling back into the circuit, it’s hard not to consider the latest evolution of the GT3 a job very well done. It retains the key attributes of its predecessor and furthers its agility; takes on elements of the S/T without stepping on that car’s toes, and allows buyers more customisation than ever. The question is whether the team can do that again for its successor in a few years’ time. Might a future GT3 grant fewer of those customer wishes than the 992.2? Genie-like, the GT engineers always seem to find a way, and the latest GT3 is still magic. 

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