Is it the best 911 ever?
The evidence is heavily in favor of an “oh, yeah.”

Body by Ginsu
Is that a smile between the headlamps? The new 997-based GT3 looks like it knows something you don’t-and unless you work for a NASA project in sodium-filled exhaust valves, asymmetric-locking differentials, and intake-manifold resonance flaps.

Now look again: its like the grin of a killer whale. And after all, with a box kite nailed to its rear end and a front air dam as low as the average IQ, the GT3 is clearly no ordinary 911.The GT3’s 3.6-liter flat-six makes 415 horsepower. In case you don’t have your abacus handy, that’s 115.3 horsepower per liter-higher specific output than the Ferrari F430. No turbos, no nitrous-oxide canisters, no drop-off solid-rocket boosters. Just 8400 rpm of shattering, naturally aspirated head-rush. Lightweight components (pistons, rods, crank) help keep the six from pulling a supernova at the redline, special heat-resistant light-alloy heads and those sodium-filled valves enable it to survive the 8000-rpm furnace, a dry sump maintains oil circulation even in the maelstrom, and infinitely variable intake cams and a variable intake manifold (those resonance flaps) ensure that the torque curve is as thick as a fat Cuba cigar.

Not even the vaunted Turbo, which makes an additional 65 horsepower, has this engine’s rifle-shot responsiveness and angry-cat ferocity. Is the GT3 powered by gasoline-or lightning?

Chasis by Cinnabon
The GT3 apparently sports one of those familiar airport cinnamon buns in each wheelwell. At least, it feels that sticky the first time you hurl it into a corner. Credit a racebred suspension that, like the old GT3’s, is a feast for tinkerers: The front anti-roll bars are adjustable to any of five positions, the rears are good for three, and you can tilt the wheels through six degrees of camber.

Newly introduced is the Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM), whose computer-controlled dampers offer driver-selectable standard and Sport modes. Wheels have grown to 19-inches all around (in back they’re also an inch wider than before) wearing brilliant Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires-which are about as close as you can legally get to street-legal racing slicks.

Be warned: Though the GT3 features a new Traction Control system borrowed from the Carrera GT exotic car, with the shallow-tread Cup tires you’ll only want to drive in the rain if you’re auditioning for the Ice Capades.