Poor weather would unquestionably have sealed the 911’s fate before the test could start, so it’s great to see the West Circuit is bathed in brilliant sunshine as we convene in the pit lane. I’ve driven the GT3 here from home and the journey has done an awful lot to restore my confidence in the abilities of Stuttgart’s finest, at least for the specific job of lapping a circuit.
Though the trip was short, it has served as the perfect refresher, reminding me just how small and sharp the GT3 feels; angry too, thanks to the 3.6-litre flat-six’s jagged rasp and razor-keen response. In short, while the Nissan has twin-turbo brawn and almost ruthless body control, the GT3 has a lightness and sinewy athleticism that should be better suited to the heavy braking and high-speed direction changes that characterise our preferred test track.
We decide it should be the 911 that throws down the gauntlet. With the VBOX suckered to the inside of the windscreen and Bovingdon strapped into the passenger seat, we nose out of the pit lane and begin the warm-up lap. The 911’s honour rests in my sweaty hands.
Experience tells me that although the ambient temperature is chilly, the GT3’s Michelin Pilot Cup tyres will give their best on our first and second flying laps, with oversteer becoming more of an issue with every subsequent lap. No time to worry about that now, though, for we’re soon turning into Tower to begin our first timed lap, the GT3 settling into a beautifully balanced slide, the small amount of oversteer neutralising the nose’s desire to push wide yet doing nothing to harm our forward momentum. It’s a great start.
Braking into the Hangar Hairpin from around 100mph is always fraught, as the line between time-wasting timidity and gung-ho optimism is separated by just a few metres. Surprisingly, the GT3’s (optional) carbon-ceramic brakes don’t deliver an instant slam of stopping power, but bite with increasing power all the way to the turn-in point. Getting the nose to key-in is always tricky here, for the camber falls away slightly to the exit. It encourages the 911’s nose to push wide and requires a fractional lift of the throttle to settle, but there’s soon enough grip to unleash the full fury of second gear, then snap up into third and wring out all the revs on the approach to the Club Chicane.
It’s tempting to really attack the braking zone here, but it’s an awkward section that requires you to brake while on a diagonal right-to-left trajectory, then make a quick direction change to the right as you enter the crucial Palmer Curves. Getting the GT3 hooked cleanly into the long left-hander is tricky, but apart from a few twitches from the tail, the 911 remains stable and we get a brilliant run into the scary-quick right transition.....
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