By Sky Motoring
03 October 2007
This is the latest episode in Porsche’s turbo-nutter-911 saga: The Widowmaker, part III. Predictably, it follows part I (993 GT2: wonderful) and part II (996 GT2: not so wonderful). It also follows the same basic recipe as before –take a 911 Turbo, make it rear-wheel drive, lose a bit of flab and fettle with the engine until it produces some even more shocking numbers. Today, this translates to 523bhp, 501lb ft of torque, 0-100mph in 7.4sec (gulp) and 204mph.
On the inside
The cabin feels functional but a little uninspired for a £130k supercar. Still, the folding carbon bucket seats are worth a mention. They allow easy access to the rear cabin and should be available on all cooking 911s soon.
On the outside
Ignore the photos: in the flesh and especially in the rear view mirror, this car has presence to spare. The front and rear bumpers are new, the latter housing a titanium exhaust, and there are a couple of inlet snorkels on the rear wing that are reminiscent of Porsche’s 935 racecar. There are all sorts of drag and aero claims too, all designed to prevent the GT2 from taking off.
On the road
This car is insanely fast. Initially, it feels like Porsche’s engineers have kept the 911 Turbo’s short gear ratios to help improve acceleration. They haven’t. The gearing is in fact, longer; it’s just that this thing is so damn quick, you seemingly have to change gear more often than in the Turbo.
Anyone worried that Porsche has gone soft by fitting traction and stability control to this car either has testosterone issues or forgets that the 996 version had heaps of understeer applied to the chassis just to stop people falling off the road. Now the electronics have been installed to handle that particular job, the car handles far better. Ceramic brakes help the car stop as quickly as it goes.
Porsche’s aim here was to create a car that felt like a turbocharged GT3, and in most respects it does just that. However, the immediacy of the GT3 is lacking. In that car, the way a driver can juggle throttle and steering to carve a line is almost telepathic, so instant are the car’s responses. Despite having virtually no turbo lag, the GT2 still feels that little bit hesitant.
The traction control is subtle, if not as clever as the 430 Scuderia’s. It is possible to have either full stability, traction control alone or the whole lot off – good to see that the ‘widow-maker’ status is alive and well.