First drive: Porsche 911 GT2
It’s the fastest car on the Porsche menu, and Toby Hagon sampled all 390kW at Eastern Creek raceway.
Porsche 911 GT2
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It’s no wonder Porsche chose a race track to unleash its new flagship, the 911 GT2.
With 390kW of power, the ability to dash from zero to 100km/h in 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 329km/h the GT2 is not the sort of car that will be at its best in traffic, or on pretty much any public road.
That’s why a roll cage can be added to the GT2 for no extra cost.
Then again, at $425,700 the Porsche 911 GT2 is the most expensive car on the Porsche menu. And the fastest; there are not many cars that have a claimed 0-300km/h time, but the 911 GT2 is one of them. For the record, it will only take 33 seconds before you can be covering one kilometre every 12 seconds.
Based on the 911 Turbo, the 911 GT2 uses a more powerful version of its 3.6-litre twin-turbocharged, six-cylinder engine. Power peaks at 390kW at 6500rpm (10 per cent more than the 911 Turbo), making the 911 GT2 the most powerful Porsche ever sold here and one of the most powerful cars on the market.
But the GT2 drives only the rear wheels – the 911 Turbo drives all four wheels – which is part of weight saving measures that have saved 145kg by also removing things like the rear seats. The front seats are also made of lightweight carbon fibre, parts of the rear axle subframe are aluminium, while parts of the exhaust are made of titanium.
The trade-off is a firmer ride thanks to suspension that sits 25mm closer to the road. Combined with a lower front spoiler (albeit a flexible one) that reduces the GT2’s ability to tackle speed humps and steep driveways.
But we can’t tell you about that just yet; our brief introduction of the 911 GT2 came at Eastern Creek raceway, the perfect place to sample Porsche’s finest.
As with many parts of the GT2 – the pinnacle of 911 performance – the changes and additions have all been made to enhance its feel and speed on the track.
The deeper front spoiler and large rear wing aim to improve cornering downforce and give the car a more stable feel at speed. It’s a supremely confident machine, even at high speeds. It’s also enormously competent and able.
The 911 GT2 is so fast, though, that it still demands respect from the driver. I’ve driven many laps at Eastern Creek, but the 911 GT2 is travelling significantly faster than almost any other production car by the time it arrives at a corner. Even from the sidelines the GT2 looks like it’s travelling fast, something production cars often struggle to achieve on the wide spaces of a race track.
source:smh