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Sometimes I think we humans put too much stock in names, but then I realize that names are literally how we make sense of the world. They allow us to set expectations and differentiate one thing from another. That second duty becomes extremely important when you’re talking about a car with seemingly innumerable variations, like the Porsche 911.
The prospect of an open-top 911 GT3—that’s what the new 911 S/C is—initially confused me. As I wrote in my first-drive review, it makes much more sense when you get behind the wheel. This article, however, isn’t about that experience. Instead, it’s about why this car exists, when it’s the antithesis of what those two letters and a number were once supposed to mean.
When Porsche first launched the original 996-generation 911 GT3, it was laser-focused on sharpness on track and lightweight, linear power. Over the years, we’ve seen the lineup flourish, first with the even more hardcore GT3 RS and then a left turn with the cushier Touring model. Again, it may seem antithetical, but customers don’t care, judging by how many GT3 buyers spring for the Touring these days.
Adam Ismail
“We know many of our GT customers have a soft spot for soft tops as well, because the 991 Speedster was a huge success in 2019,” Andreas Preuninger, Porsche’s head of GT cars, said at the S/C’s launch event in Germany. “In 2023, Spider RS, the same thing again. And, if you look at the current situation of the GT3, the Touring version is so popular that almost half of the GT3 cars are Tourings.”
“That means they’re driver’s cars for the road, rather than track cars,” Preuninger summed up. “The 911 S/T has become the driver’s car legend with that obsession for lightweight trickery and purism. Put a lot of virtues and DNA of these cars together, and you finally come up to automatically the conclusion that a drop-top, emotional, lightweight driver’s car would be absolutely welcome by our GT community.”
The 911 GT3 S/C is arguably the furthest deviation yet from what the original GT3 meant, as a convertible. You flatly wouldn’t use it on a track for that reason, even though it plucks a bunch of parts from cars with that stated purpose. That, plus Preuninger’s explanation of how his team arrived where it did, caused me to confront what GT3 really stands for in Porsche parlance.
It’s not about the track, and it’s not about a category of racing. I think you start getting closer to what this lineage means today when you find and replace “GT3” with something like the word “Ultimate.”
Adam Ismail
The only problem with that logic is that Porsche sometimes makes an even more ultimate 911, called the GT2. And that one’s got turbochargers and all-wheel drive and more everything, so if any 911 deserves our made-up “Ultimate” designation, it’s probably that one. But the GT2 comes and goes as it pleases, and we haven’t seen one this generation yet. It’s also objectively a less purist machine, with its forced induction, extra axle of assurance, and lack of a six-speed on offer.
So let’s call GT3 “Ultimate Purist,” then. And the other critical point here is that those other GT3s—the ones that arguably more classically embody the name—still exist. They haven’t gone anywhere, and it’d be crazy to think that they would anytime soon for Porsche’s bottom line. Those cars haven’t been taken away from anyone, and I think, generally speaking, the world would be a better place if we stopped bemoaning the addition of choice in any domain as diluting some sacred entity.
As long as Porsche continues to crank out free-breathing, high-revving, stick-shifted, lightweight 911s, I want to see them in as many forms as it deems appropriate, available to as many interested buyers as possible. Because only good things come from this recipe.
What do you think of the 911 GT3 S/C? Leave a comment or email the author at adam.ismail@thedrive.com
Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
