25 YEARS OF GT3 GT3 BOOKENDS
Kerry Walpole is a very generous man. Not only has he brought his 996 GT3 and 992 GT3 Touring to the party, he's bought a flask of coffee and some rather delicious sausage rolls from his local farm shop. Perfect fodder for a break in proceedings of driving and snapping, when quiet contemplation is required to compare the merits of this bookending GT3 pairing. Today's photographer, Dan Sherwood, isn't quite so happy, though. The pastry is rather flaky and most of it now seems to adorn the bonnet of the GT3 Touring.
Clearly, we are in the presence of two very different machines. They'd have to be, in order to make Kerry's ownership of both cars worthwhile and interesting. He light-heartedly refers to his 996 GT3 as the “bone shaker”, while the 992 GT3 Touring “almost drives itself” by comparison. For me, it's a leap from one of my absolute favourite 911s — the 996 GT3 — into the relative unknown.
My modern GT3 experience runs out with the 991 GT3. I didn't really rate it. Too big, too synthesised and, in RS form, it looked like Porsche was trying to out-TechArt TechArt, such was the car's many aero appendages and scoops, none of which were for applied for homologation purposes. The kicker there being Porsche cooked up a deal with the FIA to allow the 991 RSR to effectively run in mid-engined form, thereby ensuring it remained competitive in the LM GTE category. Essentially, this was Porsche admitting the 911's rearengined format was no longer an asset. That said, it made for a great Christmas present in the form of the corresponding 991 RSR Lego Technic kit.
A slight divergence, but homologation is the key to the GT3. In these more homogenised, single-make days of motorsport, the requirement for a manufacturer to build roadgoing versions of their proposed race cars is nearly dead. In the past, it's where our road race heroes came from, whether the Carrera RS 2.7 or its myriad spinoffs. Even the original 911 Turbo was conceived to homologate the 911 for force-fed endurance racing. Porsche just thought bigger
