2027 Porsche 911 GT3 S/C First Drive: Can a GT3 Touring Lose Its Top but Still Top Everything Else?

The Internet loves controversy. The almighty algorithm seems to favor friction over agreement, well-reasoned or not. Which is why when Porsche showed the world the new 911 GT3 S/C back in April, most of the commentary seemed negative. Like, crazy negative.

The S/C part stands for Sport Cabriolet, and all the haters seemed to be offering up a version of, “How dare Porsche make a convertible GT3!” Even worse, “How dare Porsche make a convertible GT3 and charge money for it!” Why? I guess because GT3s aren’t supposed to be convertibles? Never mind the 991.2 911 Speedster, which was based on the GT3 of the time and had a folding soft top. We’ll just ignore that. Yes, the internet was big mad that Porsche dared to make this car, and anecdotally, several Porsche collectors I know were completely dismissive of it. They just didn’t seem to care. Well, I just flew out to Germany and drove the 2027 Porsche 911 GT3 S/C. Should Porsche have dared? Moreover, should you care?

But First, History!

Porsche began building GT3s back in 1999. The idea was a more track-focused, if not motorsports-focused, iteration of the then-brand-new 996-generation 911. You could argue that Porsche’s iconic, brand-defining sports car had grown too fat, too soft, too focused on luxury. Enter the GT3. Sixty additional horsepower compared to the Carrera came from the racing-derived Mezger engine.

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The GT3 weighed less. It had better aero, better suspension, racier tires, and better brakes. But the ride quality was much worse. From there, the cars got more and more tracky and wingy, culminating with the 997.2 GT3 RS 4.0, a car that has a legitimate claim to the title of Best Car Ever Made. Then came the 991.1 GT3, and such was the track focus that a manual transmission was no longer an option. Then the 911 R happened because Porsche GT division chief Andreas “Andy” Preuninger realized the hyperfocus on lap times would alienate lots of customers and potential customers. The 911 R was intended to be the ultimate GT street machine, complete with a six-speed manual, as opposed to the not very good seven-speed manual Porsche stuck in the regular Carerras.

The limited and wingless 911 R (shocking!) led to the 991.2 GT3 Touring, a heavier GT3 (the hydraulic stuff for the pop-up wing and a heavier rear decklid added 100 pounds or so) and a stealthier, manual-only whip that customers simply adored. Spend a minute looking at used 991.2 GT3s, and Tourings are worth about $50,000 more than their winged siblings.

The Speedster was then the very last street-legal GT3-based factory build. Limited-production like the 4.0 and 911 R before it, it had a manual folding top that you had to get out of the car to put up or down. Opinions were of course divided, with one camp feeling that losing the GT3’s roof (and accompanying structural rigidity) was a bridge too far. Others, me included, rank the Speedster high on our list of favorite 911s. If I close my eyes and dream about the best moments I’ve ever had in a car, the Speedster makes the top five. Most GT3 junkies and connoisseurs seem to agree.

One final piece of the GT3 S/C puzzle is the Boxster Spyder RS, another GT division product without a roof. And if you thought the Speedster’s roof operation was annoying, you’ll believe that sadists designed the RS’ top. Still, what a great sports car.

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What Makes a GT3 S/C?

Preuninger began his 911 GT3 S/C remarks by stating that the GT division has “a soft spot for soft tops.” He then explained that the new Sport Cabriolet is a car GT customers have been asking for. If you’ve spent any time driving around continental Europe, you’re aware that massive rain showers can fall in the blink of an eye. I’ve personally experienced sudden onset deluges from Benelux to Le Mans to Bavaria to somewhere south of Prague. Full-on sun to being dead stopped because there’s too much precipitation to drive, and this happens in mere moments.

Well, unlike the Speedster and the Boxster Spyder RS, you can raise and lower the GT3 S/C’s roof from inside the vehicle via a switch in just 12 seconds. Talk about progress. There’s also a wind deflector that erects or retracts in two seconds. Preuninger went on to explain his team was quite surprised to find that the existing 911 Cabriolet’s folding roof structure was mostly made from lightweight magnesium. With the motor that raises/lowers it, the entire mechanism weighs less than 90 pounds.

Indeed, the team knew that the key to making the GT3 S/C legit was keeping the weight down. Preuninger said that back when it did the Speedster, the 991’s body-in-white wasn’t stiff enough; they had to reinforce the chassis with pieces of heavy steel. Therefore, the GT team was pleased to discover that the 992-gen GT3 is indeed stiff enough for convertible duty as is, literally 25 percent stiffer than the 991 had been.

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The engineers then asked, why not go lighter still? They replaced the aluminum doors and front fenders with the carbon-fiber pieces from the 911 S/T. Going with that, both the Lightweight package and parts of the Weissach pack come standard with the S/C. In addition to other weight savings, Sport Cabs come complete with magnesium wheels and carbon-ceramic brake rotors, which remove 66 pounds of unsprung weight when compared to a plain old GT3 Touring.

The team was also stoked to learn that the existing GT3 suspension—specifically its damper tuning and spring rates—were perfect for S/C duty. “We kept changing things,” Preuninger told us. “And that kept making everything worse.” As such, the GT3 Touring and GT3 S/C have identical suspension setups. Also, even though you can finally option rear seats in a GT3 Touring, the Sport Cabriolet can only be had as a two-seater. Why? Long story short, because that’s how Preuninger wants it, because it’s just more sports car that way.

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Going from the front to the rear, you see the snout from the GT3 Touring, the front fenders and doors from the 911 S/T, and an interior that is a blend of GT3 Touring and S/T. The roof and rear fenders are from a Carrera Cabriolet, and the rump is pure Touring. It’s a bit of a 911 Frankenstein’s Monster, sure, but aesthetically it totally works. There was a single PTS Speed Yellow example present for us, and it looks about as good as modern cars can look; it’s simply a rocking-great spec.

Speaking of specs, the 911 GT3 S/C introduces the Porscheverse to Street Style. Something more than a paint and stripe package (though you literally get unique colors plus stripes on the front fenders), Street Style follows in the footsteps of the Heritage Design package you might remember from the S/T and a few other 911s. Street Style gets you all sorts of nifty interior doodads, including seat centers woven from 600 meters of leather and (option M149) two locking storage boxes behind the seats.

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Mechanically, the S/C is pure 911 GT3 Touring. Most important, it features Porsche’s near-mythical 4.0-liter naturally aspirated boxer-six that revs to 9,000 rpm. The output numbers are modest by today’s huge power norms—just 502 horsepower and 311 lb-ft of torque—but the raucous engine does pass the rather strict Euro 7 emissions standards. The only transmission available just so happens to be the very best transmission on Earth, the GT division’s motorsports-related six-speed manual. The S/C is rear-wheel drive, of course.

Since the S/C is based on the 992.2 GT3 Touring, the former receives all the new stuff: an 8 percent shorter final drive ratio, anti-dive suspension technology borrowed from the GT3 RS, slightly more suspension travel due to shorter bump stops, and a fully digital dashboard. Initially, you might not be a fan of that last bullet point, but you can clock the digital tachometer (move the 9,000-rpm redline from approximately the four o’clock position to noon, straight up), and that makes the change totally worth it.

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Let’s Drive

The 2027 Porsche 911 GT3 S/C’s powertrain is a weapon. Despite its apparent lack of torque, the rear end’s shortened final gear makes the engine punchier than you expect. Additionally, all the lightweighting helps the motor hit like a horseshoe-stuffed glove. After hours of running around the Swabian Alps, I never found myself wishing or wanting for more power. Seat A/C? Definitely, but we happened to be testing out a convertible approximately 30 miles from the French border on the single hottest day in the history of France. To overstate it, even without turbos or hybrid assist, the GT3 has all the passing power you’ll ever need. I may have double-checked that last bit a few dozen times. If you enjoy the wail of the GT3’s 9K engine note with the hard top, you’re going to want the sound of the S/C hooked directly to your veins. Yeah, it’s like that. If you’re even an occasional gearhead, you’ll find the mechanical symphony intoxicating, arguably to the point where the hard top doesn’t even make sense anymore.

The GT3 Touring is of course one of the very best-driving sports cars in the world. Before the GT3 S/C drive, I spent a week in a borrowed GT3 Touring with an as-tested price of nearly $300,000. Annoyingly, it drives like a $400,000 car. Does the lack of a metal roof change anything? Naw, not even a little. At least according to the seat of my pants. In fact, it’s better, as crazy as that is to type. The front end—which since the 992.1 became the first 911 to forgo a MacPherson strut setup and went with a dual control-arm setup—is epically great.

This new front-end geometry allows you to tackle corners using less braking than in the GT3s that came before; the front wheels simply bite better. Add the carbon-fiber front fenders (or is that subtract?), and the front end of this convertible is actually lighter than the conventional car. Another key point is that in the interest of “purity,” the S/T has its rear-wheel steering removed. (All GT3s have had rear steering since the 991.1.) Sounds good on paper, but in reality, the S/T had less effective (i.e. worse) steering than other GT3s. Still, I think the S/C is the best-handling 992 GT3 yet. Hell, best driving. I’d buy one without hesitation.

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What About the Price?

It’s not cheap, naturally. The 2027 Porsche 911 GT3 S/C starts life at $275,350. Want that paint-to-sample Speed Yellow I was gushing about? That will be another $24,460, please. (PTS for the GT3 Touring is “only” $17,210. We can chalk the extra seven large up to the difficulty inherent to painting carbon-fiber pieces, the firstest of first world problems.) The Street Style package will set you back $34,190. Oh yeah, and it’s $900 for ventilated seats, though you also have to order the 18-way Adaptive Sports Seats Plus ($2,800).

Ready for the crazy part? For what you get standard, the GT3 S/C is something of a bargain. After all, the GT3 Touring starts at $238,150. Add in the Leichtbau, or Lightweight package—it’s standard on the S/C—and it sets you back an extra $43,210. Quick math tells us that sum is $281,360, already more than $6K pricier than an option-free S/C.

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Don’t forget, you also get part of the Weissach package from the winged GT3. Of course, not the high-gloss carbon-fiber wing end plates, because there is no wing. But you do get carbon-fiber anti-roll bars, carbon underbody pieces, and a short-throw gear lever, making the best transmission shift even better. The Weissach package alone is a $20,490 option. Again, best to think of the 911 GT3 S/C as a steal. The 911 GTS of the GT3 family, if you will.

In a world mostly devoid of bad cars, one where good cars are becoming greater and greater all the time, the new 911 GT3 S/C blasts onto the scene as a superlative one. It’s a car so nearly perfect that you’re aware of its excellence by the time you shift into third gear. Hell, it was awesome from the passenger seat. We’ll have to weigh one to get the real number, but I’m wagering that the GT3 S/C is lighter than the GT3 Touring. It sure drives like it, anyway. This is an incredible engineering feat if true.

I went into this drive expecting to like the Porsche GT3 S/C; I came out in love. This is as good as sports cars get. Think of it this way: If you can find another rear-wheel-drive, non-turbocharged, 9,000-rpm, manual-gearbox roadster, you should totally buy it. Since you can’t, you should totally buy the 911 GT3 S/C. I haven’t driven a GT3 this special since the Speedster, and this one is somehow even better.