Full Test: 2008 Porsche 911 GT2

For three days straight, we tried to beat the daylights out of the 2008 Porsche 911 GT2. In the end, this Guards Red missile shrugged off the experience and beat the tar out of us instead. All we had to show for our efforts were a bruised right palm, a $1,300 receipt for replacement rear tires and a permanent smile.

While selflessly obliging the lens-carrying members of our staff who asked if it'd be possible to get the 530-horsepower, rear-wheel-drive GT2 to do something interesting for the camera, we kicked this car's butt until we literally grew tired of the effort. And yet the 2008 Porsche 911 GT effectively replied, "Is that all you've got? Give me some more tires and I'm good to go."

And go it does.

How Fast?
Real fast. Utilizing Porsche's first launch assist for a manual transmission, the 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 rips a 3.9-second time to 60 mph (3.6 with a 1-foot rollout like on a drag strip) on the way to the quarter-mile in 11.7 seconds at 121 mph. Launch protocol requires you to first leave on the traction control as you engage 1st gear, then floor the throttle and watch as the tachometer needle hangs at about 5,000 rpm. You wait for the boost gauge to register about 13 psi and then release the clutch pedal quickly.

After a remarkably smooth launch, the time to shift into 2nd gear arrives so quickly that the analog tachometer is too slow to react. Das ist animal! Luckily, the shift light in the instrument cluster knows this game and gives you the proper warning.

Rather than regulating clutch slip, the ECU's launch assist regulates throttle application to match an ideal launch profile stored in the car's electronics. This way, wheelspin is optimized. (The GT2 will even lightly engage a rear brake to ensure both rear wheels rotate in unison.) Ultimately, however, the launch system proved inconsistent for us, and the GT2 bogged down off the line four out of the five times we went through the launch protocol. Once we shut off the system, our test driver's organic-based software produced nearly identical acceleration runs with far more consistency.

Compared to the 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo with an automatic transmission, the 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 is 0.2 second slower to 60 mph. It's 0.1 second behind at the 1,320-foot mark, yet nearly 3 mph faster. We chalk up the differences to a launch advantage from the all-wheel-drive 911 Turbo, while the GT2 exploits its higher horsepower (530 hp versus the Turbo's 480 hp) and lighter weight (3,175 pounds versus the Turbo's 3,596 pounds) to catch and ultimately pass the Turbo at the finish line.

Here are a few comparisons to save you the trouble:

2008 Porsche 911 GT2
0-60 = 3.9 seconds
0-60 (with 1-foot rollout) = 3.6 seconds
Quarter-mile = 11.7 at 121.3 mph

2007 Porsche 911 Turbo
0-60 = 3.6 seconds
0-60 (with 1-foot rollout) = 3.4 seconds
Quarter-mile = 11.6 at 118.5 mph

2007 Porsche 911 GT3
0-60 = 4.2 seconds
0-60 (with 1-foot rollout) = 3.9 seconds
Quarter-mile = 12.2 at 116.1 mph

2007 Porsche 911 GT3 RS
0-60 = 4.3 seconds
0-60 (with 1-foot rollout) = 4.0 seconds
Quarter-mile = 12.2 at 115.6 mph

Little Big Man
The GT2's twin-turbo 3.6-liter horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine delivers 530 hp at 6,500 rpm, a remarkable 147 hp/liter. The 7.0-liter V8 of the Corvette Z06 would have to crank out more than 1,030 horses instead of its trifling 505 hp to achieve comparable efficiency. Equally impressive is the GT2's neck-straining 505 pound-feet of torque available at just 2,200 rpm.

The GT2's prodigious output and efficiency are due in large part to turbos that are even larger than those in the 911 Turbo. They provide 20 psi of maximum boost at wide-open throttle compared to the 911 Turbo's 14.5 psi.

Power delivery is where the GT2 differs mostly from the Porsche 911 GT3. While the GT2 is not what we'd call slow below 3,000 rpm, there's a definite thrill to the car's explosive acceleration above that. It's the kind of car that would be dangerous in the wrong hands.

The GT3's naturally aspirated 415-hp engine with its 12.0:1 compression ratio and 8,400-rpm redline give it crisp throttle control and really, really long legs in every gear. But the GT2 answers that by saying, "You don't need long legs if you can simply leap from corner to corner." The GT2's turbocharged engine has its sweet spot between 3,000 and 6,750 rpm, which makes it more of a point-and-shoot, breathe-when-you-stop experience.

As a result, the GT2 requires shifting gears more frequently over the same stretch of road than the GT3. And, and, frankly, this gets old. The heavy clutch effort and short-throw shift lever seem thrilling the first day, are simply accepted as the cost of doing business on the second day, and then you've got a throbbing left thigh and a bruised right palm at the end of the third day.

Heat and Hang on
The GT2's standard carbon-ceramic disc brakes (optional on the GT3) bring this car to a halt from 60 mph in just 96 feet. That's a new record for us, and 7 feet shorter than the 911 Turbo, 5 feet fewer than a GT3 RS and 2 feet shorter than the 2009 Nissan GT-R.

It is pressure on the brake pedal — not the travel of the pedal — that varies the effectiveness of the brakes, a strategy that comes from priorities set at the racetrack. Once you've driven a sports car with brakes like this, you'll never want it any other way, although your right thigh will have a different opinion.

The GT2's gummy, barely street-legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires only get stickier with abuse. Without so much as a squealing tire, the GT2 circled the skid pad at 0.99g and threaded the slalom cones at 71.6 mph.

We've recorded slightly better numbers from a GT3 and GT3 RS tested at a different facility with better pavement, but we'd bet the GT2 could produce the same 1.02g and 75-mph performances as its GT3 rivals given the same conditions. Still, the GT2's steering is so informative it can tell you what day of the week the pavement was poured.

Did Somebody Drop a Throttle?
Like the 996-generation 911 GT2 that preceded it (2001-'05), the new 997-generation Porsche 911 GT2 rewards a learned driver and punishes a novice. But where the 996 GT2 was a case study in lift-throttle oversteer, the new GT2 is far more forgiving of driver and environmental indiscretions.

To start with, the limited-slip differential begins to engage later than before, and this means crisper turn-in. And to snub down any unpleasantness from a big lift of the throttle at the wrong moment, the GT2 adapts a system nicked from the Carrera GT. In conjunction with the stability and traction control systems, Engine Drag Control limits engine braking by actually applying the throttle slightly if it determines that the slowing rear wheels are making the back end of the car step out of line.

Finally, the GT2 features a sophisticated multilevel stability control system with one setting tailored specifically to track use. There's also the ability to shut off traction control while maintaining a safety net with the stability controls. A brave driver can elect to turn off all the electronic nannies, but thankfully, ABS is always at the ready.

All this electronic supervision comes in handy when you rip a less-than-perfect downshift as you dive into a corner. The problem is that these electronics also make the throttle loath to obey quick inputs. It also means it's even harder for the driver to kick out the GT2's tail into a slide, but where there's a will, there's a way.

Racy Bits
While the 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 actually isn't intended to participate in races, it has track-ready adjustability.

You can alter the ride height with the spring perches, while the front antiroll bar has four settings and the rear bar has three. Alignment and camber settings can be changed as well.

And as with the GT3, a two-position button determines which PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) setting you prefer for the dampers. Your choice is firm or firmer, since the calibration is like that of the harsh-riding GT3 RS.

Also like the GT3 RS, you can even change the gear ratios within its six-speed manual transmission.

Connecting the Apexes
If you think of the GT2 as a track-prepped GT3 RS with a nuclear reactor in its rear end instead of a race-proven, homologated 3.6-liter engine, you'd be pretty close. Like a racing car, the harder you drive it, the better it gets.

Whether we were connecting cones on the slalom, corners on Cerro Noreste, or drifting around the Streets of Willow, the new GT2 never broke a sweat — unlike its driver. To even get close to the car's limits requires steely concentration and quick reflexes.

In a GT2, things happen at fast-forward speed, and that's not always comfortable. What once felt like a manageable high-speed sweeper becomes a much shorter, quick corner with genuine entry, apex and exit points. Straights are compressed into short bursts of breathtaking speed, which is an unfortunate consequence because that's where drivers typically take a breath.

In the end, the $192,560 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 is far more civilized and forgiving than the diabolical previous-generation GT2. Yet it's also a far racier tool than the $127,060 2008 Porsche 911 Turbo. It also inspires as much confidence at speed as the track-bred GT3 or GT3 RS, even though it compresses time and space at a previously unheard of rate.

But is the 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 worth an $84,000 premium over the $108,360 911 GT3? That depends on where you find your thrills: annihilating straights in the GT2 or finessing corners in the GT3.

If we were spending somebody else's money, we'd forfeit the rush of acceleration found in the GT2 and choose the GT3 instead for its ability to deliver a race-proven engine and unmatched responsiveness in a package that's better suited to real-world driving. The 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 is simply too much of a track-bred exotic car for us.

Besides, you could buy a family-friendly Porsche Cayenne GTS with the money you'd save.

The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.