Das Boost: The finest Porsche road car ever, U gloat


By Arthur St. Antoine

At around 5000 rpm the world as you've always known it explodes, your innards tumble as if you've just stepped out of an airplane, your eyeballs churn into marmalade. Five quick manual shifts, and you're catching the horizon at more than 200 miles per hour, the audio system playing a Bartok string quartet, your cerebrum struggling to believe it's all real.

You've just been GT2'd.

Take a moment, catch your breath, maybe grab hold of your security blanket. What follows is the very first U.S. instrumented test of Porsche's newest, wickedest-ever 911, the 2008 GT2. The numbers will astonish you. They astonished us, and we've driven a few fast cars before. This is your last chance to call for Mommy.

Imagine a Porsche that combines the blown thrust of the 911 Turbo, the tango-champion agility of the 911 GT3, and an extra-generous seasoning of Zuffenhausen alchemy-that's the $192,560 GT2. You'll recall that, in our first test of the GT3 (May 2007), we dubbed it "the greatest 911 ever." A bold statement, but now that we've driven its twin-turbo, rear-drive sibling, we're making an even loftier proclamation: The GT2 is, quite simply, the finest road-going Porsche of all time. Yes, better even than the $450,000, V-10-powered Carrera GT exoticar. Really.

Launch control is standard on the GT2, so maximum-performance starts await novices and pros alike. Press the button, mash the throttle to the floor, wait for the revs to stabilize at about 5000 rpm, then drop the clutch. And. You. Disappear. The 325/30ZR19 rear Michelins skip a beat or two when assaulted with the engine's full fury, but once they hook up, watch out. The GT2 scorches to 60 mph in only 3.4 seconds. That's quicker than the 605-horsepower Carrera GT, which we timed in 3.6 seconds (October 2004). The GT2 is equally mind-blowing in the quarter mile, tripping the lights in just 11.4 seconds at 127.9 mph. The engine doesn't feel turbocharged; rather, as the revs rise it seems to come on cam, the power delivery linear and seemingly limitless.

"Limitless" is the word. On a closed road, our Angus MacKenzie, in true Aussie road-warrior style, held his foot to the floor long enough (and it didn't take long) to see an indicated 202 mph ("Absolutely steady as a rock there, too," he said later). Porsche claims a top speed of 204.

Check the digits on the opposite side of the friction circle, and the GT2 rules there, too. The huge carbon-ceramic binders-15-inch discs with six-piston calipers in front-and sticky Cup tires combine to produce stops from 60 mph in a lung-crushing 98 feet. In recent testing, only the Audi R8 stops harder (96 feet).

Like the GT3, the GT2 features standard Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM), with driver-selectable normal and Sport modes. Also standard is the first Porsche Stability Management (PSM) system on a 911 GT model. Tuned for track driving (the GT2 includes standard cockpit mounts for adding a roll bar), PSM allows a helpful amount of rear rotation before stepping in, and then only enough to bring the car back in line. Maximum grip is a neck-wrecking 1.1 g-race-car territory (and easily topping the mid-engine Carrera GT's 0.99 g). The GT2 is unfailingly poised, too, an amazing achievement for a 530-horse beast with 62 percent of it weight balanced on the rear axle.

On our exclusive figure-eight test, the GT2 left us awestruck, circling the course in only 22.9 seconds. That's quicker than the Carrera GT. Quicker than the Ferrari Enzo. Quicker, in fact, than any street-legal car we've ever tested. Yet for all of its incomparable performance, the GT2 is as docile as a golden retriever puppy. Drive it around town, and it never complains, never demands special care. The Carrera GT was fast but peaky, with a finicky, light-switch clutch. The GT2, in contrast, effortlessly surfs waves of torque, and its control efforts are fluid and easy-at modest speeds, it drives like any other 911. Ride quality in either mode is pain-free (our long-term Mini Cooper S, to name one, is far harsher). The leather seats (there are only two) are wonderfully deep, backed with carbon fiber, and trimmed with rich Alcantara (as is much of the rest of the cabin). Navigation and Bose surround sound are optional. The GT2 even returns 23 mpg on the highway and qualifies as a LEV-II on emissions.

So, certainly, you're looking at the finest Porsche road car of all time. And at one of the greatest sports cars the world has ever seen.

Nothing Compares To U

0-60 mph
Porsche 911 GT2 3.4 sec
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 3.5 sec
Dodge Viper SRT-10 3.7 sec
Ferrari F430 F1 3.7 sec
Lamborghini Gallardo 3.8 sec

Quarter mile
Porsche 911 GT2 11.4 sec @ 127.9 mph
ChevroletCorvette Z06 11.5 sec @ 127.1 mph
DodgeViper SRT-10 11.7 sec @ 124.4 mph
FerrariF430 F1 11.7 sec @ 122.8 mph
LamborghiniGallardo 12.1 sec @ 116.3 mph

Braking, 60-0 mph
Porsche 911 GT2 98 feet
Ferrari F430 F1 100 feet
Dodge Viper SRT-10 102 feet
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 104 feet
Lamborghini Gallardo 111 feet

Lateral Acceleration
Porsche 911 GT2 1.10 g
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 1.05 g
Dodge Viper SRT-10 0.99 g
Lamborghini Gallardo 0.92 g

 

You gonna buy one, Mike?

 

Yeah, in 10 years

 

I really need to learn how to drive stick

 

I need to make 192,560 dollars ....

 

Those are some crazy numbers indeed........ until the GT-R V-Spec comes along that is.

 

 

One of my favorite cars of all time. It's worth every single penny. It's an artwork!

.

 

nonsense, let's see Nissan achieve these numbers with 62% of the weight on the rear axle and all of the power going to the rear wheels. Nissan has it easy.

 

BTW to the OP, do you have the link to the article?

 

FS: 1 kidney, 2 *********, 1 appendix, some blood plasma, bone marrow, part of a liver...

 

But that's the point. The GT2 may be the best 911 ever but it's still a 911, an inherently unbalanced machine. It's like giving heavy steroids and expensive genetic enhancements to a cow and training it like hell only to make it run almost as fast as a regular bull. Sure, it's pretty amazing that a cow can be made to run nearly as fast as a bull, but with all that time and money spent why not just get a real bull to begin with? It's about time Nissan shows the world what a proper drivetrain layout can do.

 

are you a smoker? drink?

 

Never smoked. A beer now and then.

 

1.10g on the skidpad, that's simply insane....