New Porsche 911 GT3 S/C review: a triumph of an open-top sports car
The Porsche 911 GT3 S/C is expensive, but won't disappoint when it comes to pure open-top thrills
Verdict
The Porsche 911 GT3 S/C is a thrilling sports car that effortlessly blends technical perfection with genuine heart and soul. By combining the visceral, high-revving naturally aspirated engine of the GT3 with an open-top driving experience, it creates a unique machine that imparts a permanent grin on the driver's face. While it demands a huge financial investment, the flawless manual gearbox and razor-sharp handling make it an absolute triumph.
A Porsche 911 GT3 without a roof? It sounds like a crazy idea on paper. However, what the engineers at Porsche have actually delivered is an absolutely uncompromising lightweight sports car that enthusiastically revs all the way to a staggering 9,000rpm, guaranteeing a permanent grin on the face of anyone lucky enough to drive one.
Strictly speaking, this is a spectacular machine that was never supposed to exist. The GT3 S/C was essentially born from a spontaneous whim of Porsche's development engineers, who decided to try combining the hardcore underpinnings of the GT3 coupé with the bodyshell of a 911 Cabriolet. To ensure that this ambitious open-top project did not betray the fundamental character of a thrilling, lightweight racer, extreme weight-saving measures had to be implemented across the board.
The sheer scale of the diet Porsche has subjected this car to is deeply impressive. The bonnet, wings and doors have all been meticulously crafted from lightweight carbon fibre. The anti-roll bars? They are also entirely made from carbon fibre.
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Carbon-ceramic brakes are fitted as standard; compared to a conventional braking system, these high-performance stoppers save more than 20kg of crucial mass. Meanwhile, filling the muscular wheel arches are stunning forged-magnesium wheels: 20 inches at the front and 21 inches to the rear. In total, these special wheels reduce the car's rotating mass by a significant 9kg.
The obsessive attention to detail continues beneath the skin with a battery that has been specifically optimised to be 4kg lighter than a standard unit. Even the supporting and load-bearing structural elements of the folding fabric soft top are manufactured from lightweight magnesium.
The culmination of this intense, margin-hunting engineering effort is a fully road-ready kerb weight of exactly 1,497kg – including all necessary operating fluids, lubricants, and a full tank of fuel. To put that into perspective, this means the new GT3 S/C is a full 30kg lighter than the celebrated 991-generation 911 Speedster, a car still considered the benchmark for lightweight, open-top performance.
Inside the GT3’s cabin, the quest for ultimate weight reduction is equally apparent. Porsche has cleverly utilised the exact same lightweight carpets and stripped-back door panels that were featured in the highly exclusive 911 S/T – the strictly limited special edition built to celebrate the 60th anniversary of this iconic sports car.
Even the interior door handles have been swapped out for carbon fibre replacements to shave off a few more precious grams. Buyers are given a choice of seating: you can stick with the standard four-way electrically adjustable sports seats, or opt for a set of carbon-fibre buckets. Our car had the latter, holding us perfectly in place during hard cornering.
Ahead of the driver, the focal point of the digital instrument cluster is the rev counter, exactly as you would expect in any serious Porsche. By engaging the dedicated Track-Screen mode, the driver can instantly reduce the digital display to show only essential driving data. For an even more focused experience on the limit, the digital dial can be customised so that the magical 9,000rpm redline is positioned dead centre at the 12 o'clock mark.
Why is that redline so important? Because this naturally aspirated 4.0-litre flat-six boxer engine only really feels at home when it is pushed right to its absolute limits. The sound it produces is simply intoxicating; it hisses, breathes, and roars, while in Sport mode, it sings a glorious song, accompanied by crashing, rev-matched downshifts. The mechanical symphony is so rich that a traditional stereo system feels entirely superfluous.
The real-world performance figures are just as dramatic as the soundtrack: 503bhp and 450Nm of torque. This incredible power propels the open-top sports car from 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds; by the time you hit that speed, you haven't even needed to engage third gear via the wonderfully precise, short-throw six-speed manual gearbox.
Keep the throttle pinned to the floorboards, and 124mph (200km/h) arrives in less than 12 seconds, with the car eventually topping out at 194mph. To keep the 911 firmly planted to the tarmac, the rear spoiler automatically deploys at 75mph to drastically increase aerodynamic downforce.
Dynamically, the GT3 S/C is an undisputed masterpiece. It features a highly advanced double-wishbone front suspension system – a first for an open-top 911. The engineering team originally assumed that the standard GT3 coupé's track-focused rear suspension would need a complete, ground-up overhaul to properly compensate for the additional weight of the folding roof mechanism sitting over the rear wheels. But after extensive testing, they discovered that tweaking the suspension by a mere one per cent was all that was needed to give the car immense stability, even during exceptionally sporty, open-air driving on twisty mountain roads.
The steering is beautifully calibrated, responding sensitively from the dead-centre position without ever feeling overly nervous or twitchy. This flawless set-up allows the driver to pilot the car through corners with absolute precision, regardless of whether you are braking late and hard, or gently slowing for a sweeping bend.
Should the weather take a turn for the worse, the magnesium-framed fabric soft top can be opened or closed in just 12 seconds, and this entire operation can be performed on the move at speeds of up to 30mph. Once the roof is stowed, an electric wind deflector can be deployed in a mere two seconds, and remarkably, at speeds up to 75mph.
At a starting price of £200,500, the GT3 S/C is an undeniably expensive plaything. It is slightly disappointing, then, that on a car where almost everything feels uniquely premium, the button panel for the hazard lights and ESC deactivation is made from rather cheap-looking, simple plastic – especially since enthusiastic drivers will frequently be pressing that 'ESC off' switch. Our only complaint is an admittedly small one.
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| Model: | Porsche 911 GT3 S/C |
| Price: | £200,500 |
| Powertrain: | 4.0-litre 6cyl petrol |
| Power/torque: | 503bhp/450Nm |
| Transmission: | Six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive |
| 0-62mph: | 3.9 seconds |
| Top speed: | 194mph |
| Economy/CO2: | 20.7mpg/310g/km |
| Size (L/W/H): | 4,570/1,852/1,279mm |
| On sale: | Now |
