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Sure, it won’t fit a family, but I’d tell the kids to get stuffed and walk if it meant spending every second of the day behind the wheel. This is the new Porsche 911 GT3 Touring, and it is, quite simply, the best car you can buy with legal tender. It’s the best car that I’ve driven in 2025, and in this article, I’m going to explain why it beat out vehicles like the Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider and Aston Martin Vanquish.
Frankly, I don’t care that $4 million hypercars exist with 2,000 horsepower and a top speed of 1,000, and I don’t care about restomods—okay, maybe a Singer. However, I do care about 4.0-litre flat-six engines that scream their way to 9,000rpm and send that power to the rear wheels only through a six-speed manual transmission. I also appreciate that I’m not embarrassed to be seen in it. I love how most people don’t really care about it, and the ones who do will give you a thumbs up or a polite nod to acknowledge your life choices.
If my life’s choices were to become a doctor or a lawyer, then I might be able to afford one of these $446,700 before-on-road-costs sports cars and put it in my driveway forever. That said, even with all the money in the world, allocations for these manual transmission cars are hard to come by for all but the most loyal Porsche enthusiasts. Until that day comes, I can dream and tell you all about this car in my full review of the Porsche 911 GT3 with Touring Package below!
I don’t want to spend too much time discussing the price, because if you’re offered an allocation slot to build one of these cars, the AUD$446,700 before on-road costs need not matter. Nor would it matter that the rather understated test car that I’m driving is priced at $525,150 before on-road costs. Still, I’m a stickler for options, so I’ve compiled a quick list of them below, as I know you’re curious.
Here’s a list of options for the GT3 with Touring Package that I was driving for this review:
It’s abundantly clear that you could save a whole lot of money if you chose to leave the $28,070 Two-tone leather interior (Exclusive Manufaktur Black & Cohiba Brown) unticked. However, I would simply swap it out for the $71,120 Lightweight package and consider it a done deal.
This package adds a Roof made of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) painted in the exterior colour, a Lightweight door panel with a door pull handle in visible carbon (satin finish), as well as a storage net. Shortened GT-specific gear lever (only in conjunction with 6-speed GT sports manual transmission), Badge with Leightweight package logo in front of gear selector. Interior package in Carbon. Lightweight sport bucket seats (foldable), Anti-roll bars and coupling rods on the rear axle, as well as thrust field made of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP), and 20-/21-inch Magnesium lightweight wheels to finish.
Those options above might sound a little excessive, but with careful consideration, the new car lets you create a unique vehicle that suits your own personal tastes.
Here with the Touring Package, it naturally points the car’s character towards a racecar wearing a Brunello Cucinelli suit. However, you can then take that a step further with leather options or opt for a lightweight, barebones purist driving experience with the Leightweight Package.
The PCA team opted to fill the interior with leather. It starts with the Adaptive sports seats in front (18-way, electric) for $5,150 before moving to the Interior trim package with decorative stitching in Crayon for $6,500, Seat consoles in leather with Crayon decorative stitching for $2,220, Steering column casing in leather for $750, and Sports seat Plus backrests in leather with decorative inlay in leather for $3,370.
When you add back in the rear seats (NCO), which are available with a GT3 for the first time, you have essentially created a Bentley out of your Porsche GT3 Touring.
Porsche does not need to update the interior of the 992-generation vehicle, but it has added a new 12.6-inch curved display for the driver, offering three different layouts. It controversially removes the centre, analogue rev-counter. It replaces it with a digital alternative, but you can now choose how you want the 9,000 rpm rev limit to appear, either in the traditional position or at the 12 o’clock position. Additionally, the physical engine on/off switch, which was removed from the standard car, makes a welcome return.
The same high-resolution 10.9-inch touchscreen in full HD returns with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. My favourite feature here is how the screen displays the relevant driving controls at startup, allowing you to open the exhaust flaps quickly, turn off the start/stop function, pop out the rear wing, and switch auto rev-matching on and off.
It need not be mentioned, but the driving position is practically perfect. The shifter is at perfect arm’s reach. While the centre console cupholder remains in a precarious position, you can place your coffee in your passenger’s pop-out cupholder fairly easily.
The 18-way seats are the way to go if you plan on driving the car more than once a week, but the carbon-fibre seats are the choice for occasional drives. Okay, let’s talk about driving now.
Despite strict European emissions regulations forcing Porsche to install four catalytic converters in the exhaust, the GT3 Touring still produces an epic noise.
The sound only gets better the closer you bring the naturally aspirated 4.0-litre flat 6-cylinder petrol engine to its 9,000 rpm redline. It’s here, as you pull off a perfect third to fourth shift, that you scream at your passenger and the world, “Why is this so good!” I mean, it’s almost unfair, as there isn’t an experience like this in any other new car, and it’s why those successful enough to afford one line up around the block, hoping for an allocation.
I had the chance to push a Weissach-equipped car on track at Sydney Motor Sport Park, so I wasn’t tempted to drive the wheels of the Touring Package. My goal was to experience the car as an owner would, over the weekend, on a few of the best roads outside of Sydney, with his better half in the passenger seat.
Quickly on the hardware, there’s Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) with sports set-up and 20-millimetre lower ride height (compared to 911 Carrera) underneath, and this works with Speed-sensitive electro-mechanical power-assisted steering with variable ratio to create an outstanding driving experience, which’s again, arguably better than anything else on sale right now. You also receive other racing-inspired equipment, such as Rear axle steering with a sports setup, Rear differential lock, and Porsche Stability Management (PSM), which includes ABS braking that can be gradually disengaged in two stages (ESC OFF and ESC + TC OFF).
The 4.0-litre flat 6-cylinder petrol engine produces 375 kW / 510 PS at 8,500 RPM and 450 Nm at 6,250 RPM. That torque is down slightly compared to the previous generation due to these new emissions systems, but the 0–100 km/h acceleration time remains predictably quick at 3.4 seconds (3.9 seconds with the manual transmission).
While I would be lying if I said it was immediately noticeable, the 6-speed manual gearbox is 17 kilograms lighter than the 7-speed PDK gearbox.
There are 408 mm (front) and 380 mm (rear) brake discs behind 20-inch (front) and 21-inch (rear) diameter forged alloy wheels, and you can opt for the Porsche Ceramic Composite Brake (PCCB) package if you’re interested in laptimes or simply too lazy to clean the brake dust off your wheels. The steel brakes on our test car were more than sufficient for road driving in Australia, but those with particularly quick backroads and tight hairpins might request more after a few hot cycles.
Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) with mechanical (not electronically regulated) rear differential lock is standard on the new model, and it combines with the aforementioned Rear-axle steering with sports set-up to assist with stability at speeds above 80 km/h, turning in the same direction as the front wheels, also by up to 2.0 degrees. This helps “shorten” the wheel base by 6 millimetres, increasing cornering stability.
It’s not something you notice immediately, but the car just feels lightweight and positionable. However, you do see how compliant the five-link rear suspension is through mid-corner bumps.
The anti-dive system from the 911 GT3 RS also makes its way into the new model, featuring a lower control arm with a steeper angle due to the lower positioning of the lower ball joint. This reduces pitch noticeable, and with the double-wishbone design on the front suspension, it creates an addictive turn-in experience that carries all the way through the corner until the exit. Step on the loud pedal again, listen to the engine climb to 9,000 rpm, rinse, and repeat. This is what makes the GT3 so special.
Finally, the most significant and noticeable change here with the new GT3 is the reduced final drive ratio. It’s 8 per cent shorter compared to the previous model, and this maximises agility and makes the car more fun to drive. You spend less time shifting from second to third and more time shifting from third to fourth, which is the sweet spot when driving a manual transmission.
If you get out of a new Porsche GT3 and you’re not shaking your head in disbelief at just how good a car can be to drive, you might not have a pulse.
There isn’t another car that money can buy brand new that’s more fun, more enjoyable to drive, more elegant, and classy than a 2025 Porsche GT3 with Touring Package.
If there is, I want to drive it.
Journalist – Automotive & Tech
Ben lives in Sydney, Australia. He has a Bachelor's Degree (Media, Technology and the Law) from Macquarie University (2020). Outside of his studies, he has spent the last decade heavily involved in the automotive, technology and fashion world. Turning his …
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