The 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup has arrived; and some. Look beneath the Black & Decker Workmate glued to the back and you'll see a car Porsche offers to über rich people with an appetite for lavish manufacturer racing series tours. Apparently this latest version gives those people 'greater value than ever before,' but we expect value isn't high on their priority lists. Nor rear visibility. Phew.
What will certainly be high on that list is performance. Based on the
brand new GT3 RS, the Cup is lighter than the road car and is 44mm wider at the rear to accommodate massive tyres. The front wheel arches are fattened too, for the same reason. The engine grows from 3.6-litres in the last Cup-badged 911 to 3.8-litres, which helps it gain 30bhp over the 420bhp predecessor. For those who failed maths at school, that means this has 450bhp. The power gets to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox.
Other changes over the GT3 RS on which it's based include
that rear spoiler (borrowed from the even more mentalist GT3 Cup S), a lower front splitter, adjustable anti-roll bars and a racing exhaust system. Inside there's an extra air vent to help the driver cope with the clammy rigours of racing, and the race spec steering wheel incorporates an information display. It also gets the road car's optional carbon-ceramic brakes as standard, which are 20kg lighter than the regular stoppers.
Surprisingly though, much of it is carried straight over from the road car, which tells you everything you need to know about living with that day-to-day. And the price? £130,000 to you, sir, not including VAT, with deliveries starting in October. Owners can race it in seven cup events across the globe, including Germany, Japan, Italy and America.
Mark Nichol - 26 Aug 2009