The Porsche 911 GT3 and GT3 RS of today manage truly monstrous amounts of power, but how much further can future iterations realistically go? We recently received word that the rumored flat-8 engine in development wouldn’t see the light of day – at least, not in any 911-badged Porsche models – and the normally-aspirated flat-6 of the Porsche 911 GT3 is effectively capped at 4.0 liters due to packaging constraints.
The question is, of course, rhetorical; if the automaker is to keep the Porsche 911 GT3 normally-aspirated (which it certainly will), its power output may be approaching its maximum. But that’s not of any particular importance, because as Porsche AG Head of GT Series Production Andreas Preuninger told the UK’s Car magazine, the primary focus of the next Porsche 911 GT3 and GT3 RS will be watching its weight.
Mr. Preuninger said: “I’m not a believer in this horsepower monster, up, up, up, more, more, more. For my personal tastes, around 500 bhp is enough, because 700 to 800 bhp calls for bigger brakes, sturdier suspension, it gets heavier and heavier logically.” Instead, said the Executive, the marque will concentrate on maximizing all performance – not just straight-line speed – by helping the GT series 911s to shed pounds.
But of course, that’s not to say that future versions of the race track-ready Porsche 911 GT3 will become less potent: “If I were a customer and the next RS had 20bhp less, I would say, ‘Hey, come on, what’s that?'” he told the magazine. “But we have to be more concentrated on the overall package, not just horsepower. This is not a dragster, it’s a track car.”
Additionally, fans of the storied German marque have something else to look forward to from the next Porsche 911 GT3: a manual transmission. While it’s true that Porsche’s dual-clutch automatic is faster-shifting and more capable than any living soul rowing gears his or herself, Mr. Preuninger is more concerned with driving satisfaction than he is with Nordschleife times.
On that subject, the Porsche GT boss said: “There’s no wrong, no right. Just differences in mission criteria… We put a manual in the Cayman GT4 for good reason, to show the people we listened. For people to blip the throttle, it’s satisfying. Why not give the people something to play with if they’re longing for that?”
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