The GT3 Lineage

(Rennlist.com)

Bentley's Newest Track Beast

New Bentley Continental GT3 race car looks beautiful and brutal

(AutoBlog.com)

A Chance To Own A Nostalgic 911 GT3 RS

You can buy Jerry Seinfeld's 911 GT3 RS but it won't make you funny

[I]t could be yours if you bring enough money to Russo and Steele's Monterey auction, which will take place from August 17 to August 19 around the time of the Pebble Beach Concours.

[T]his car came with an honest-to-goodness manual transmission. 

(AutoBlog.com) 

Long Live The 911 GT3

Racing rulebooks are the only thing keeping the greatest 911 alive 

The GT3 isn't turbo because the racecar isn't turbo.

The reason the GT3 hasn't gone the turbo is the same reason the GT3 exists: because racecar. In an interview with Autoblog, GT Project Director Andreas Preuninger laid it out thusly: "What's very crucial for us, a key factor is the bloodline between the racecar and the street car."

That's not just marketing. Preuninger tells that, without the 997-generation GT3 R racecar, there never would have been a GT3 RS 4.0 road car. "The theoretical paperwork didn't show how good the engine felt and what you could do with it before you really built one and tried it. That's what you do on the racing side - just try something out. And that filters into the street cars as well."

(AutoBlog.com) 

They See Me Rollin' - Porsche Edition

(SpeedHunters.com)

Thank You Porsche!

2018 Porsche 911 GT3 Gets Manual Transmission And 198 MPH Top Speed

Bless us, every one, for Porsche listens to us after all. They listened! They care! The 2018 Porsche 911 GT3 will give buyers the choice of Porsche’s ultra-fast paddle-shifted PDK transmission or a glorious good old three-pedal six-speed manual transmission, per a Porsche press release. Rejoice!

The refreshed 991.2-generation 911 GT3 will come with a naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six engine good for 500 horsepower and 338 lb-ft of torque. The 2018 911 GT3's engine is based on the one used in all of the current-generation 911 race cars, including the 911 GT3 R and the 911 RSR. 

Best of all, there’s a little bonus for choosing the manual gearbox. With the standard seven-speed PDK gearbox, it weighs only 3,153 lbs, accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds, eventually reaching a top speed of 197 mph.

But the manual is lighter—3,116 lbs—netting it an additional mile per hour in top speed. It gets from 0 to 60 in 3.8 seconds, but you’re going to have a lot more fun getting there if you’ve been mourning the loss of three pedals ever since the 991 GT3 came out.

(Jalopnik.com)

I Got Jan 29th Circled On My Calenadar Now

Lexus is sending its 2017 RC F GT3 to do battle in the US and Japan 

It even kind of looks like a kaiju.

On our side of the Pacific, the car will debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona on January 29th, and compete with the aforementioned 3GT Racing team in the GTD category of the IMSA Championship Series.

(AutoBlog.com)

I Bet That It Was A Blast To Drive

What it's like to drive Bentley's Continental GT3 racecar

A few things set the 4.0-liter V8's power delivery apart from that of the street car. For starters, the engine, which is capped at 600 horsepower in race spec, feels like its twin turbochargers spool more quickly and seamlessly, almost masking the fact that there's any forced induction. The race engine seems to wind up more eagerly, as if the drastic weight loss includes a big reduction in rotational mass. Maximum revs aren't particularly high – after all, Bentley has always been known for low-revving torqueiness, not screaming redlines – but keeping an eye on the progressive shift lights keeps you from bouncing off the rev limiter like an amateur. It takes a firm stab of the middle pedal to slow the car down, but the unboosted brakes have breathtaking stopping power when you get into them. It stops just as effectively as it goes, maybe even better.

Once you get a feel for how authoritatively it can decelerate, the GT3 can be driven with more anger leading into corners. Don't overdo it with the stoppers, and there's a shocking amount of cornering grip thanks to the car's tremendous downforce and sticky race slicks. The disconnect between expecting the car to fly off the track and its insistence to stay grounded requires a leap of faith. But once you've conquered the fear of failure, the GT3 manages to guide itself through high-speed corners with a level of adhesion that simply cannot be matched by street cars, which are invariably tuned for aerodynamic neutrality not downforce. 

Another curious thing about racecars: the faster they go, the more natural they feel. While upshifts are clunky at low speeds, they're bang bang fast when you're cooking; the GT3's brakes squeak and moan at piddling velocities, but clamp down for real when you're flying. Try to drive a competitive racecar slowly, and you're punished with the ignominy of looking graceless and hamfisted. Push it to wring out its performance, and it makes you look good, as long as you don't push too far.

(AutoBlog.com)

This Is 1 Mean Lookin' Race Machine

Linkin Park designed a Mercedes racecar livery. Yes, seriously

Or at least someone working with Linkin Park did. Either way, the end result looks pretty good, and it helps that the AMG GT3 is a fantastic design on its own right. The car has all the right proportions, so the addition of black lightning bolts, thick red stripes, and the band's logo/shield draped over the silver base could hardly do anything to hurt the appearance. Strangely, this is not the first Mercedes-AMG/Linkin Park mashup; the band did the soundtrack for a C63 promo video last year.

(AutoBlog.com)

The Flying Lizards Are Back!

It’s official: Flying Lizard Motorsports is back in a Porsche. This 911 GT3 R will compete in Pirelli World Challenge’s GTA class, per Sportscar365. Driver Andy Wilzoch has been running a Flying Lizard Porsche in club racing, but his move to PWC marks the Lizards’ first pro racing Porsche effort since 2013. It just feels right. 

(Jalopnik.com)

It's A Cost Effective Series

Why Is Everybody Building All These GT3 Race Cars?

In the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, there were GT3 cars from Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini, Ferrari, BMW, Aston Martin, and a lone Dodge Viper. If you are thinking that some of these cars might automatically be faster than others, you’d be right, but part of the FIA sanction is balancing performance, usually through weight and the size of engine intakes. If you drove your Viper to Sebring, your car had considerably more horsepower than the ViperExchange.com Viper on the track.

There’s also an accepted price range for GT3 cars – about $500,000 per car, plus maybe $350,000 in spares. Depending on the company – and this is one reason why customers might choose one manufacturer over another – they might throw in an engineer and a factory driver for some races.

Bottom line, then, is the bottom line: You can get started for under $1 million in GT3 racing, which some people consider a genuine bargain. We’re happy for those people.

(TheDrive.com)

Sometimes The Plight Of The 1% Can Be Heard

Porsche sees error of ways, next 911 GT3 to offer manual transmission

Consider this Porsche's mea culpa. After creating an uproar over selling a new 911 GT3 without a manual transmission, the automaker introduced the limited-edition, manual-equipped 911 R in Geneva. That car is just a stopgap, though. It's meant to hold 911 drivers over until the next GT3 arrives with the same six-speed manual transmission.

Yes, the next-gen GT3 will get an old-fashioned six-speed manual, according to a new report from Autocar (but the GT3 RS will still be PDK-only). In fact, the same report claims Porsche will make sure that the 911 GT3 remains the car for the brand's most ardent purists. While the rest of the Porsche range moves to turbocharged engines, the GT3 will stick to its naturally aspirated guns. That comes direct from the big boss behind the GT3, Andreas Preuninger, who told the magazine this would be the case "for the foreseeable future."

(AutoBlog.com)