Driven! Is the Upgraded 2025 Porsche 911 GT3 Still as Sensational as Ever?
The 992.2 generation of the venerable GT3 has arrived, and its changes are more substantial than you might think.
It’s easy to say the 2025 Porsche 911 GT3’s changes are too minor to matter. From the outside, without a 992.1-generation version parked next to a 992.2 (that’s Porsche-speak for pre- and post-refresh of the 992-series 911), it’s basically impossible to tell the difference between them. Even the cars’ spec sheets are essentially the same, with the 992.2’s slight reductions in torque and top speed being the most obvious tells.
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But then you drive the new one and ask yourself: How the hell did Porsche do it again? How did it take a car we already thought was perfect—a machine we named the 2022 MotorTrend Performance Vehicle of the Year—and make it even better? Short answer: by making it easier to live with, without diluting its character or capabilities. For a longer answer, read on.
What’s Different About the 2025 911 GT3?
Persnickety, misaligned global exhaust and noise regulations across key markets were the source of much consternation. They mean the 2025 Porsche 911 GT3 now has four catalytic converters, up from two, reducing backpressure, lowering torque by 15 lb-ft, and requiring every gear ratio in both the manual and PDK versions of the transmission to be shorter by 8 percent to maintain the accelerative curve. This also robbed a few mph off the top end, but that’s a worthwhile trade for maintaining the car’s fierce, relentless shove. The two new catalysts are even larger on American GT3s owing to those cars’ lack of particulate filters. However, all GT3s drive and sound the same as—and are as loud as—before.
The 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat-six engine received changes, too. A new cam profile that increases the time the valves are open and new freer-flowing throttle bodies and engine cooling essentially cancel out the minor horsepower loss from regulatory hurdles; the engine still makes 502 horsepower, still revs relentlessly to 9,000 rpm, and still sounds like a barely bridled race car out for blood. As before, up- and downshifts from the dual-clutch automatic are ripped off with spooky prescience before you can say “PDK,” while the manual remains a satisfyingly precise and rewarding tool for attacking a two-lane hairpin.
Regs also demanded a new crash structure in the doors, and that and the new catalytic converters added weight. Yet the new car is exactly as quick as the old one, according to Porsche, and the curb weights of each are at most 20 pounds apart. Credit the adoption of new carbon-fiber parts as well as lighter wheels for keeping things in check. Carbon is also back on the menu in terms of the optional (and supremely comfortable) bucket seats, but these now have tilting backrests and feature a removable headrest pad to better accommodate a helmeted head. Finally, yes, new regulations require that all driver-assist systems be on by default at every startup. Thankfully, Porsche has added a single hard button on the center stack through which you can disable everything in one spot.
As before, there are two distinct paths for buyers to walk: the regular GT3 with its huge wing and available weight-reducing Weissach package, and the GT3 Touring, which drops the wing and subs in the Lightweight pack for those looking to shed a few more pounds. They start at the same $224,495 base price and climb from there. We drove both in their intended environments, the winged car at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain, and the 911 GT3 Touring on winding, hilly roads outside the city.
Is the 2025 911 GT3 Better to Drive? Improbably, Yes
We started in the Touring. Many of the minor changes to the new 2025 Porsche GT3 were driven directly by customer feedback, Porsche says, including the rear seats now being available for no cost in wingless GT3s. The most dramatic change is the revised suspension; too many GT3 owners were nonplussed by the car’s extra-firm ride on the street. So Porsche’s engineers swapped to new, shorter bumpstops to provide nearly a full additional inch of spring travel, using learnings from the development of the sublime 911 S/T. Other alterations made to the 2025 GT3’s chassis include bladelike front suspension arms (as seen on the mighty GT3 RS) to increase downforce and brake cooling, diffuser pieces on the lower control arms to aid underbody airflow, and a lower front pivot point to cut the amount of brake dive in half (also found on the RS).
It all works extremely well. The roads we drove were heaving, lumpy, broken messes in many spots, and in its default Normal mode, the 911 GT3 Touring largely ignored them while tracking straighter than before. Only in Sport mode did the car begin to tramline a bit, but the brakes bit with predictable authority again and again even while hauling things down over severely wrinkled asphalt.
The steering remains absolutely sensational; it responds so immediately to inputs, it’s as if you’re moving the front tires directly by hand. And yet the steering is improved with new bits of code meant to keep the system feeling exactly the same for years by using the electric assist to compensate for changes in friction from wear and temperature fluctuations. This software also improves on-center feel and feedback, which we weren’t sure the car needed, but we’ll take it.
Hitting the Track
We next jumped into a standard 2025 911 GT3 with the Weissach package—carbon roof, decklid, and hood; lightweight door panels; shorter manual shifter; carbon-fiber rear anti-roll bar and shear panel; and more—for a stint on the racetrack. Circuit Ricardo Tormo is a car and MotoGP circuit with plenty of sweeping corners and a long front straight, and it highlighted the 911 GT3’s prodigious grip, tenacious appetite for apexes, and absolute approachability. Everything we felt on the road was present on the track, and getting comfortable at reasonably high speeds was quick and easy. The bucket seats provide a stable perch for track work, and we’d consider them a must-have for winged GT3s (and pretty much a must-have in general).
But the ultimate confirmation of how much better and how supremely capable the 2025 Porsche 911 GT3 is occurred with us in the passenger seat. We were given a “taxi ride,” as the Germans like to call such shenanigans, by Jörg Bergmeister, former sports car racing champion and Porsche ambassador/test driver, who simply caned the GT3 around the 2.5 miles of Spanish tarmac. The newfound suspension compliance was on full display, as Bergmeister assaulted the aggressive curbing we had just been warned to steer clear of, using it to revector the 911 GT3’s nose (and occasionally get on what felt like two wheels). The car just shrugged off the impacts and rocketed out with a familiar ferocity to each successive corner.
Even though we long ago came to expect excellence from each new Porsche, the fact that even the company’s most staggeringly astonishing cars can be improved upon never fails to drop our jaws. Even as the 992.2 Porsche 911 GT3’s changes seem minor, they most certainly matter. The GT3 has been reworked; the GT3 is still a legend.
Erik Johnson fell in love with cars before he could talk, carrying that passion through graduation from the University of Michigan. He's led digital content for Automobile and Car and Driver, and now oversees print and digital content for MotorTrend. He still pinches himself every day.
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