Porsche 911 GT3 Touring 992.1 v 992.2: the big comparison!

Welcome to NinebikesTV and today's special episode being a tale of two tourings. We got the new 992.2 against its predecessor in the 992.1. The big question, is this car worth the upgrade? Thanks for tuning in today, start off with a couple of thanks to Andy for lending his lovely 992.1 touring, Porsche GB for lending the .2 press car and our friends here at Paul Stevens for giving us a solid cup of coffee, a lovely look around the place and some space in which to do this film for you. The big news really is all to do with the seats in the .2, top level, folding buckets for the first time as well as the rear seats, otherwise they appear on paper at least pretty much identical. Both have a four litre naturally aspirated flat six engine revving to 9,000 rpm and putting out 510 horsepower. Likewise, gearboxes both have a six speed manual or seven speed PDK option, both of the same length, width and height, both have the same spec dimensions of wheels, tyres and brakes. So on paper otherwise, they're really, really similar if not identical. Now the good news is if you're regular to this channel and you therefore know these cars as well as I do, you will know that that's just not true and underneath the surface there's going to be many details, often on a granular level in the greatest Visac tradition that add up to something special and something different ultimately and we're going to explore that in today's episode. Just before we head out on the road, just want to drop a couple of gems, early doors in terms of like the granular level of detail changes between these two cars, because as I said, it's the same body on these cars, same length, width, height, but the Gen 2 has a slightly better drag coefficient because Visac has just tweaked a couple of bits in this case to better manage airflow over, under and indeed through the GT3 Touring. That's why there is a revised chin on the car or front spoiler as Porsche calls it. The double wishbone front suspension, the arms have been reprofiled to have like a teardrop profile now. It manages airflow better in that area of the car, but also increases downforce on the front axle. Now what's interesting is Porsche has balanced that out, as you would, we've now got the addition of a gurney flap on the end of the active rear wing. Then in the bumper, the rear bumper at the sides, whereas on the Gen 1 there are some blanking plates in there, here, well, it's a complete through fare so you can actually see the rear tyres through the bumper here now. There's also a slight tweak to the diffuser, so better downforce on the new GT3 Touring but also has slightly better drag coefficient. On the Gen 1 it's 0.34, on this it's 0.32. A little gem, early doors that highlight some of these granular details between the latest and previous Touring. We'll head out now onto the public road and explore the rest of them in further detail. I have to say, it's really nice to see that analogue tacho. It's a real piece of jewellery sitting in the middle, particularly because we've got digital screens either side and again, as I've said previously on Nine Weeks TV, that for me is peak tachometer in the 911. It's more timepiece than tacho, it's really nice to look at. The Gen 1 is actually lighter, in manual form it's 1,418 kilos, with PDK like this it's a slight weight penalty at 1,435 kilos but the PDK car has here is still lighter than that one behind. Sound wise, pretty similar, although I feel like there's a little bit more rolling tyre noise in here. I've got to pop this into sport now, which in a manual car will give automatic rev matching, obviously none of that needed here with PDK, but it does, popping the mode wheel into sport, does put the, or firm up the sports chasm suspension and we will just keep that on briefly, although the reality is on a wet day on a B road in this country, it's probably not necessary. Give it a tickle. Beautiful sound, such a wonderful linearity to the way the power builds, this engine is so special, so special, what I will say with this car is it's well travelled, it's been on two Nineworks Driven or Hidden Collective road trips this year, it went down to Sicily with us, retracing the Targa Florio in the summer, it's just got back from our annual pilgrimage to the Porsche Museum, so 11,000 miles on the clock and I think the car is all the better for it, it's really, really nice, it's opened up I guess and the engine is a real beaut, it's touring perfection for me, I much prefer the way the Gen 1 looks over the Gen 2 I have to say, with the Gen 2 it's more fussy, I don't like the front particularly with the unpainted sections, although you can get those painted of course through the individualisation programme, but the rear as well is a lot more bulbous, chiefly to do with those exit vents, they just stick out more and it just doesn't look as fluid and elegant from a design point of view in comparison to this car, so I'm going to take it out of Sport Pazen now, just sort of soften the Sport Pazen, it's slightly too firm for me and even in its most relaxed setting with the suspension, I'm feeling the bumps in the road a lot more compared to the Dot 2, honestly this is perfection, the other thing is and I know it's you know old hat really, but I'm not having to get in this car and turn things off, i.e. lane change assist, a take a break function, a speed limit awareness, none of that, this is just one of the last get in and go cars, it's just all the better for it, allegedly this has 20 more Newton meters of peak torque over the Dot 2, this is 470 allegedly at 6100 RPM, that car has 450 at slightly higher RPM of 6250. In terms of power they're the same at 510 PS, albeit the Dot 2, that figure is achieved slightly higher up the rev range, slightly directional changes are amazing in this. I definitely think we'll jump back into that Dot 2 shortly, but in driving that car here I definitely think that the Dot 1 is acoustically a lot more full-bodied over the Dot 2, I mean this is just, it's singing to us YouTube, it is singing a merry song. This really is a scintillating GT product and it's just you know you drive these things and you constantly wonder how can Vysak improve on this recipe, well allegedly Vysak has done so with that Dot 2 behind, it's about time we jumped into that car and investigated for ourselves just how or indeed if. Now before we go anywhere I want to talk about the seats in the 992 Touring because as I said at the top of the video in a weird way, seats are the big news with this car, we'll start with the front ones first of all because for the first time the Now on paper that's a really good thing and makes good use of the space behind particularly when feeding into the Touring mantra, however I need to be really honest YouTube, I am not getting on with this seat, I've no issue at all with the lateral hold, there's a decent enough pinch on my hips and again I'm super average build and height, good hold laterally that's fine with plenty of room on my shoulder so you don't feel trapped in but you do feel snug and secure. The issue is and I think you know with this being a Porsche channel it's important to offer context so in comparison to the previous folding bucket which was in late 99 or 997 generation cars and 991 in this one compared to the one I mentioned you sit a lot lower down here you really are on the floor in comparison to the previous one but therein lies the problem for me because the way you're sat basically your backside is really far into the seat not just on the floor but backwards as well. The issue I'm finding again as an average height bloke is I can't therefore find an optimum seating position and I've had this car three days now and I'm still struggling, I'm still yet to find an optimum driving position because where my backside is kind of pushed so far back and my legs are of average length I'm really struggling or I have to bring this seat forward in order for my left leg to swing all the way forward to the bulkhead in order to depress the manual clutch now by contrast my right foot is back here because this is where the accelerator is and I only need a short blip or gentle blip on the accelerator pedal in order to push the car forward so I feel like my legs are like this they're pretty short I don't have legs of different lengths in what would be sniper's nightmare and I've come to realize that this folding bucket seat suits a tall person, think Andreas Preuninger, think Walter Rolle, I'm certain these seats will suit those guys perfectly because again backside right to the floor push right back and basically they've got enough length to get up and over the leading edge of this seat which has also got this like weird lip with a dip in the middle I guess to support the back of your knee but then to get all the way up and over and then to the clutch pedal and then to then push forward to the bulkhead so my answer is to sit really far forward a bit too far forward for my liking and it just doesn't work for me so I think that's really important to point out what I do like and where again this car or this seat improves over the previous folding bucket is with this because my criticism of the folding bucket and indeed to be honest the 918 seat I don't think the fixed bucket I don't think is great at it is when you have a helmet on a crash lid it pushes your neck forward on that whereas we've got the release here you can take that out which allows your neck to go backwards into a much more comfortable position when you've got a crash hat on so that is a really good improvement but otherwise I am really sorry to say this seat is not a triumph for me on to the rear seats and well it is pretty cool that porsche now offers seats in the back of the touring is it a bit of a gimmick possibly because this is a gt product after all however it's a very different gt product the touring when it was launched in 2017 it broke new ground for the genre and therefore you know why not have some seats in the back what I would say is it's probably more useful as storage when you fold the seats down and use it as a shelf to pop some bits on I'm not too sure your dog would be that thrilled with sitting in the back with the engine bouncing off the rev limiter at 9000 rpm a passenger might enjoy it though what I will say is in a complete fluke we have had three people in this car this weekend I had to take my parents from my brother's house back to theirs because they'd had a glass of wine and my brother said can you do that with the 911 out the front I was like yes yes I could so we actually have had three people riding in the gt3 touring which again is pretty cool so I like the fact porsche offers it so as far as I'm concerned the rear seats is a success in the new touring the new front seats folding buckets not so much honestly the fact that this car is still being made is such a triumph in a world where governments and legislation is just making it harder and harder and harder to create truly emotive driving machines porsche is still making a four litre naturally aspirated high revving 911 gt product it is amazing still 510 horsepower but there have been tweaks partly due to legislation but also there have been improvements that just uplift the character of this car for example the exhaust system which has two gps gasoline particulate filters alongside four four catalytic converters in an effort to keep this car on the right side of the strictest ever legislation and regulations we've ever seen in the automotive world and it still sounds absolutely awesome somehow the engineers have managed to keep hold of that trademark is the only word for it trademark gt3 how coming into the cabin and actually what I really like as well on liftoff there's a transmission wine I'm sure it's a transmission wine and it reminds me actually of the 919 lmp1 lemont car it was present in the dot one it's more so in the dot two particularly on liftoff we've got reworked cylinder heads there's also gt3 rs cams from the 992.1 and that all contributes to quite a change over the dot one in character because for a start in gear acceleration is smoother more buttery than the gem one st like very st like actually and there's also a smoother racier run to the red line at 9000 rpm the only drawback to it that I can see in character is between eight and nine thousand rpm that last thousand revs per minute acoustically I find to be just a little bit lacking over the dot one when we're comparing apples with apples as today it could be because this car's done three and a half thousand rpm uh three and a half thousand miles the dot one has done eleven and a half thousand miles could well be that but to me at that last a thousand rpm the dot one touring just sings in a way where this just lacks by about five percent it's barely perceptible but it is nevertheless present we'll talk about ride as well because again there are differences and I mentioned that the gem one is a later gem one which is allegedly where the ride was tweaked in terms of how it damped over those earlier cars that were deemed by the populace to be a little bit too firm allegedly those late gen ones have had a bit of st inspiration I don't think that's there to be honest with you having driven an st the way that car goes down the road is outrageous it's the best damped 911 I've ever been in it is unbelievable this car is close to it it's not the same the st is even more resolved and this is where there is always daylight between like I remember with the 911r and the original touring and a lot of people saying they were very similar cars they're not they're five percent different all over creates a completely different car and it's the same with the st and the tourings both this one and the late 992.1s there's always clear daylight Porsche always engineers these granular differences and it's the same here this goes down the road exceptionally well the way it's damped is a lot more polished for these roads than the dot one definitely definitely but and I say there is a but to that the dot one just feels a bit more alive as a result I can feel what's going on a bit more it's a bit it's a bit more GT the shift as well it's worth touching on that because this car has the lightweight package that's a 30 grand option carbon fiber anti-roll bars magnesium wheels and a shorter shifter taken from the st quick side note while we're comparing with st the shift is not of the same quality as the st that's really slick and lightweight you can really throw that thing around again it's a delight to use this is a fantastic gearbox it is heavier and more clunkier than the st of that there is no question of course we can't compare this to the dot one manual because the one we're comparing it to today is the pdk stubby shift lots of heft the clutch itself is really light I think a bit too light to be honest with you I want I want to I want to feel something there to be honest I'm not getting that here but it is a good gearbox allegedly eight percent shorter ratios I do feel I'm changing gear more which is fun again on the road that's what I want that engagement what a fabulous day we have had in and amongst the Essex countryside with these two driving machines really interesting to compare apples with apples and we'll start with the latest car in the top two ultimately the champion thing on this car is the fact that it's still being made you know in this world of ever tightening strangling legislation the very fact that this sports car still exists and Porsche persists in lavishing us with a high revving naturally aspirated engine and a manual gearbox is absolutely terrific and sensational so a real doff of the cap to all the team at Vysak because it's getting harder and harder to make this car ultimately there are no losers here if you're in that car it's a fantastic choice if you're in that car it's a fantastic choice however in comparing apples with apples and the dot two to the dot one the dot one for me is just more of a visceral experience both acoustically in the way it sounds but also dynamically in the way it goes down the road I just feel more connected in this car and what's going on underneath than I am in that one ultimately though and I can't stress this enough there are no losers here all I would say is for my money if I was in a dot one already I wouldn't feel a need despite the folding buckets in the rear seats to step into for a chunk more change the dot two I hope you found this video as interesting as I have thanks as always to you for your support it really does mean a hell of a lot we'll see you again soon on NinebikesTV