2005 Porsche 911 Test Drive

Dial 911 for Excitement

The 911 may be celebrating its 40th anniversary, but the new GT3 and 2004 Turbo Cabriolet prove that Porsche still thinks young.

Like the crowd-pleasing attributes of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, the fundamental ethos behind Porsches doesn't seem to change much from year to year, even if the cars themselves do. There are few cars on the road that are as recognizable as the 911. Its low, long hood and muscular haunches seem to have barely changed since it was first introduced nearly 40 years ago.

That is why the raft of new models that have come out of Stuttgart in the past few years seems positively radical. Constant vision and revision is the lot of struggling Detroit auto makers -- witness the announcement by General Motors' Chevrolet division on Aug. 7 to roll out nine new models over the next 20 months.

But given the problems plaguing the car industry these days, even Porsche can't continue cruising at top speed in the passing lane of the autobahn without introducing new models to help goose sales. Not only has the new Cayenne sport utility vehicle appeared this year in the showrooms but two new versions of the 911 -- the racecar-derived 911 GT3 and the new 911 Turbo Cabriolet -- are also making their debuts.

"Our model range for the next ten years is already in place," says Hans Riedel, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Porsche. The company will show a 40th anniversary special 911 at September's auto show in Frankfurt, and the car will have limited production of 1,963 models -- a tribute to the year of the car's birth: 1963.

As for dealing that model range, Riedel says "you will not find large stocks of cars that we are not able to sell," and the rebates that litter American manufacturers' showrooms are absent from Porsche dealerships. As a small, independent manufacturer, Porsche can avoid the rebate game even in the face of declining sports-car sales. (Riedel says the new Cayenne SUV "more than offsets" the losses.)

The chart below shows Cayenne was a big boost to Porsche: As of Aug. 1, 2003, calendar year-to-date sales increased by 2,053 cars, or 13% over last year, to 15,766 cars, but total Boxster and 911 sales are down.

Incentives "will spoil the customer forever" adds Riedel, who disapproves of the price war among American brands, and says "Mercedes-Benz" when asked who besides Porsche best combines strong products with dealership savvy. Still, Porsche believes that offering high-end, more powerful versions of its 911, will also help buck up its bottom line.

But DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes marque does not have a product quite like the new 911 GT3 -- basically, a race car with just enough modifications to make it street-legal.

Don't confuse it with the range-topping $180,000 GT2, though. That vehicle is a derivative of the 911 Turbo, and the GT3 is cheaper and naturally aspirated (which means that it's not turbo-charged) -- the most powerful nonturbo Porsche ever sold in North America, in fact.

Porsche has built the GT3 as a racecar since 1999. The GT3 RS has won its class at 24 Hours of Daytona and 24 Hours of Le Mans for the past two years.

The GT3 now in dealerships is not a professional racecar but it's close. The gas tank, for example, is large for the car, but at 26.4 gallons is a smart size for endurance racing.

Everything revolves around power. As if to fool you, the speedometer is numbered in increments of 25 miles per hour. And, in the spirit of true racing masochism, as for the suspension, Porsche says the focus is performance, not comfort. (In other words, if you want comfy, buy a Lincoln.)

In addition to having a 0-60 mph time of 4.3 seconds and a top speed of 190 mph, the GT3 has some very sophisticated, racing-derived performance options. An expensive one is an $8,150 set of ceramic composite brakes, as on the GT2. These are 50% lighter than steel brakes and more efficient -- that is, the ABS kicks in more quickly.

When stopping with steel brakes, you want to brake hard at first and then ease off as the ABS activates. This also transfers the car's weight to the front before the vehicle's speed lowers and the shift would be more noticeable.

But with the Porsche ceramic brakes, you want to start easy, let the ABS do its job, and then brake harder. It's an example of interesting racing technology, but your passengers will think you're braking late in every turn.

With performance options like this -- and the stripper interior -- the GT3 is aimed at pampered speed freaks, and Porsche plans to sell only a few hundred vehicles per year. The base price is $99,900, and our test model -- with extra expenses like the ceramic brakes, black leather ($2,920), lowered seats ($705 for 0.4 inches) and a $1,300 gas guzzler tax -- ran to $118,250.

The new 911 Turbo Cabriolet, which is being introduced in October, may also have optional, passenger-scaring ceramic brakes, but it's a far more genteel (albeit more powerful) vehicle for $30,000 more than the GT3.

The Turbo Cabriolet is the first Porsche turbo convertible since 1989, and the vehicle was developed under the code name 930 -- the name of the first 911 turbo convertible.

Porsche makes a lot of money on convertibles. In 2001 and 2002, about one-third of all 911 sales were convertibles -- as were 60% of overall Porsche sales, counting Boxsters.

Porsche will ship 2,500 Turbo Cabriolets to North America in the first full year, selling them for $128,200. The U.S. will receive 50% to 60% of the incoming vehicles.

As two iterations of the 911, the GT3 and Turbo Cabriolet are entirely different: a horse compared to a bullet.

Carrying as little weight as possible, the GT3 is considerably wilder than the Turbo Cabriolet. With the added heft and grip of four-wheel-drive, the convertible plays it cooler in terms of road adhesion, even if it is more powerful than the GT3 (420 horsepower, as opposed to 380).

And if the GT3 has the attitude of a more refined Nissan 350Z, the Turbo Cabriolet feels more like a Mercedes E55 AMG -- faster than pretty much anything and, if you want, as calm as your dishwasher.

Porsche's revised product portfolio will help broadcast the brand's engineering savvy to new buyers. And with the new GT3 and Turbo Cabriolet -- two wildly different demonstrations of Porsche power -- the company is flexing a range of performance skills absent at just about every other manufacturer.