The GT3 badge is special in sports car folklore. It tells of a Porsche distilled to its essentials, a road-legal race car built for the thrill of high-performance driving.
The whale-tailed 911 GT3 is not as accessible or easy to drive as its sisters from the same stable, including the more powerful 911 Turbo.
It's a purist's Porsche, a hardcore car for drivers who speak a language of counter-steer, racing lines, and clipped apexes who might occasionally need a car to get them to work, unlike the even more hardcore 911 RS which is essentially a track tool.
The 2007 Porsche GT3, a recent arrival in South African showrooms at around R1.5-million, has not strayed from its original motorsport breeding. The driven wheels are at the rear - not on each axle like the 911 Turbo - and its 19" alloys are shod with uber-wide 305mm rubber.
These sticky semi-slicks were specially developed for the GT3 and, though their shallow grooves will officially pass a roadworthy test, driving in the rain will soon make you familiar with the term "aquaplaning".
The car has active suspension and a ride three centimetres lower than that of a standard 911 Carrera and can be (optionally) fitted at no extra cost with a Clubsport package comprising a roll cage, a six-point racing harness and a fire extinguisher. Our test car was equipped with optional light carbon-fibre seats costing R56 546.
There are no rear seats, just hollows where seats should be - all in the interests of weight-saving - but the driver and his passenger have all the necessary comforts: air-con, audio and power windows.
The 3.6-litre flat six below the giant rear wing has no turbo. It's not as powerful as the 911 Turbo but more purist as the lack of sound-strangling turbines in the exhaust ports liberates the most hair-raising howl - call it sonic soul.
The 305kW fired to the rear wheels is the highest specific output of any non-turbo production car; 84.7kW/litre is 10kW more than a BMW M5. Mighty impressive and the GT3 also wields a meaty 405Nm of torque.
Whatever the sums say, you know you're driving a proper sports car the moment you press that heavy clutch for the first time and hook first gear with a shift action that has a firm, but precise, clunk. There's heavy-duty firepower here and it requires a heavy-duty transmission.
Booster button
Your view of the fascia is dominated by a tachometer whose red line bisects the number 8500rpm. There are also a number of warning gauges and a 350km/h speedo. No, the GT3 won't go quite that fast, but it will make an impressive 310km/h.
What's also impressive is the ease with which this Porsche gets to such a speed. The acceleration is strong and lusty off the mark, squeezing you oh-so-sweetly into your seat, and it keeps you there with superbike-like pace. In fact we raced one - no less Kawasaki's ZX-14 missile that is the fastest bike on the road - and above 220km/h the GT3 had the upper hand, much to the superbiker's surprise.
Pressing a button marked Sport on the fascia liberates an extra 10kW and 15Nm and the soul music is stirred a little more.
That the GT3's not an everyday car is confirmed by its limited ground clearance; no matter how carefully you tackle driveway entrances you end up scraping the lip under the front spoiler.
Smooth tar is where the GT3 is happiest, preferably tar framed by red-and-white kerbs and sand traps. We couldn't resist that particular temptation so we took the car for a few hot laps around Germiston's WesBank Raceway where two things were confirmed: the GT3 is a terrific track machine but isn't a sports car for the average accountant with a midlife crisis.
Easy on the throttle
It has towering ability in pace, traction and braking but calls for above-average driving skills. The car is alive with sensation and all have been distilled to make it as reactive as possible, delivering every nuance of feedback to the driver.
But get too cheeky and it will bite. There's a lot of grip but when it does let go it tends to happen quickly. Put the power down too hard and too soon out of a bend and even those sticky tyres, aided by traction control and a limited-slip differential, can't cope with that much power over-enthusiastically applied mid-corner.
Best to apply the throttle a little more judiciously through turns; there's a lot of lap time to be saved with a more subtle technique.
The ceramic brakes (R107 730 option) require no subtlety. They bite fiercely, arresting pace with a force that makes the seat harness squeeze the breath out of you. This is some of the hardest, latest braking we've ever done but, despite being hammered lap after lap, they never showed any signs of fade. Awesome.
Firm ride
In standard mode the suspension is super-firm and the car displays about as much body roll around corners as a Scalextric car but for track use the shocks can be further stiffened to retina-detaching levels at the press of a button.
This firm ride together with kart-like direct steering makes the GT3 a beaut around a smooth racetrack but driving at high speed on a bumpy road causes the steering to buck in your hands, eroding your confidence.
The 911 Turbo is more stable in a straight line and more forgiving through the curves for less-experienced drivers because its all-wheel traction lets you punch the throttle earlier.
THE VERDICT
Unlike the faster, but more forgiving, 911 Turbo, the GT3 is a more inspiring, get-down-and-dirty car for the committed driving enthusiast. In the right hands it's the ultimate 911.
That engine howl alone is enough to make you love it.