“When we introduced the first GT3 in 1999, it had 360bhp, barely. If someone would’ve told us in ten years there’d be a 4.0 with 500bhp, I would have said, ‘Yeah, come on…’, but technology goes on and on.” That was Porsche GT boss Andreas Preuninger, when we interviewed him at the Geneva Motor Show, 2015, at the 991.1 GT3 RS’s unveiling.
Today we’re experiencing that leap first hand with a drive in the first 996.1 GT3 and a comparison with its most recent and extreme descendant, the 991.2 GT3 RS, at Sonoma racetrack near San Francisco.
The two cars share much in concept and philosophy but as Preuninger reflected, technology goes on and on. Engine output might have barely risen in the last ten years, since the 997 4.0…