THE GREATEST 911S OF ALL TIME
5 GT3 TOURING
Of the many, many exquisite models over the years boasting the numbers ‘9’, ‘1’ and ‘1’ on their backsides, it is a modern 911 which hustles its way into our top five and kicks off our GOAT countdown.
The GT3 Touring is on our list not just because of what it is, but for what it represents. A triumph for the purist in our world of fierce digitization and ceaseless technological integration, the Touring shows Porsche, despite its exponential growth in the last 20 years, is still prepared to listen to its sports car customers – a clientele that sadly does not form its bread-and-butter business any longer.
The request was simple: customers merely wanted to change gear themselves in a 911 GT car. Duly delivered with aplomb, the movement back to manual started with the 991 R of 2016. Just as we were (begrudgingly) getting used to a perceived future of PDK-only transmissions in modern Porsche sports cars, Andreas Preuninger dropped this limited-run driver’s special which, at its heart, lay a beautiful, six-speed manual gearbox.
The R proved stratospherically popular: just 991 were built and sold by Porsche for £136,000, some examples quickly changing hands for upwards of £400,000 at the peak of demand. With the R rocketing away into unobtainium, enthusiasts demanded a similar platform for the everyman. It duly arrived in the 991.2 GT3 with Touring Package. Mimicking the R’s C4 bodyshell and wingless silhouette, the Touring was similarly blessed with a 500hp, naturally-aspirated flat six mated to that glorious six-speed stick shift. What it didn’t have was the R’s single-mass flywheel and magnesium roof with double-bubble appearance, but it mattered little.
What it did have was what many believe to be the best engine fitted to a road car, ever. Revving gloriously all the way to 9,000rpm (the R’s redline falls just short of that),
