It seemed to good to be true: get up on Monday morning, make the short drive to Silverstone to test the
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, then head to Heathrow for an early morning flight to Lisbon, a short hop to Estoril and a chance to drive the extraordinary GT3 R Hybrid. I knew that the Hybrid would be the main event, but the chance to get familiar with a 997 race car the day before was perfect timing.
Unfortunately the dreary haze of rain clinging to Silverstone with real determination and a busy Scholarship programme combined to make my few laps in the GT3 Cup less than ideal. However, the contrast between Porsche's entry level customer car and the Hybrid, essentially a very fast-moving laboratory, was extraordinary.
The numbers stack-up like this: the GT3 Cup costs GBP 103,200 (+VAT), is equipped with the sarne 3.8-litre flat-six found in a GT3 RS road car, which revs to 8500rpm and produces 450hp. It has no ABS, no traction control and a sixspeed sequential 'box operated by a ruddy great lever that sprouts from the bare floor: pull back to change up (no clutch necessary), push forward to change down (clutch recornmended, throttle blip to match revs essential), The GT3 R Hybrid is, of course, based on the GT3 R. It has a wider track, ABS, a paddle-operated gearbox and an incredibly complex traction control system that works on both front and rear axles and features highly adjustable torque vectoring programming, too. The flat-six is the sarne 4.0-litre version run in the RSR, restricted to 470bhp, but that is supplemented by a 200bhp electrical boost to the front wheels. It weighs 1300kg to the Cup car's 1160kg.
The rain doesn't seem to dampen the commitment of the lucky few chosen to test the GT3 Cup car as part of Porsche's commendable Scholarship programme. The Cup screams past the pits trailing a great sheet of atomised water over and over again, then it rumbles into the pits and a nine-year-old gets out trying not to look like he's enjoyed it too much. Okay, maybe they're a bit older than nine. A bit. My tum comes just before lunch, as the mist of rain gets thicker and more resolute, I've only got four laps of Silverstone's National circuit and if I stick it in the gravel I suspect the team - who are rather looking forward to some hot food and a dry hospitality suite - might just take to me with a torque wrench.
It's always disconcerting how low you sit in a proper racer and as I trundle away from the pits I feel like I need an extra cushion to help me pick out the kerbs. The briefing was short and simple. Pull back to change-up, push forward to change down. If you need reverse, go down to first, then pull the lever on the back of the gearstick and push forward again. Give the gearbox a right old bang, otherwise it won't change. Simple.
The laps came and go quickly and the Cup is a heap more friendly than I'd imagined. It has simply staggering traction in horrid conditions, the onset of under- or oversteer is quick but communicated clearly and despite limited steering lock I never feel like it's going to reverse me off the track at great speed. However, it feels physical to drive, mainly because of the gearbox, which feels strong but crude - a feeling exacerbated in these conditions, as you want to finesse the gear changes to avoid sudden loads on the chassis and drivetrain, but you just have to give it a whack and hope for the best.
ESSENTIALLY THE HYBRID JUST LETS YOU DRIVE AS CLEANLY AND AS HARD AS YOU DARE.
The brakes are also tricky to read - you hear the tyres are locked before you feel it through the pedaL. What's very clear even at a pretty pathetic pace is that the Cup really makes you work every phase of every corner. No wonder even really quick drivers often struggle to quickly find a rhythm in a Cup car.
The Hybrid seems to be going disconcertingly fast. In the pit garage you can hear every corner of every lap and these other journalists assembled at Estoril drive it seem mightily committed. There's smoke pouring from the brakes every time it returns to the pits and the throttle seems to be decisively on or off - usually on by the sounds of it - no namby-pamby feathering here. With the challenging Cup fresh in my memory, I wonder if I'm going ta be rather out of my depth in this thing.
Andrew Frankel has already explained all the controls and functions brilliantly. so I'll just concentrate on the driving. And you know what? That's exactly what you do when you're in the Hybrid. White the flywheel is staring-up energy and releasing it in strategic places, while the traction control is trimming wheelspin, while the ABS is rationalising braking inputs, you just drive. Sure, it sounds like there's a plane taking off next to you and you feel the extra power ramp-up the acceleration and the unfathomable traction, but essentially the Hybrid just lets you drive as cleanly and as hard as you dare.
By the end of the first stint of four laps I feel totally at ease with the Hybrid and for my last laps I'm braking later and later, getting on the power earlier than seems wise or even possible and generally bossing the Hybrid around. Of course, me bossing it is very different from somebody like Bergmeister - but the very fact that I feel confident to lean on the Hybrid so hard for my abilities, is a testament to the integration of this ingenious flywheel system and the inherently brilliant platfonn of the GT3 R.
To say that the Hybrid is an easy car ta drive to its ultimate limits would be untrue (and besides, how would I know?). But it's a car that communicates and encourages and one that doesn't let its amazing technology get in the way of how the driver interacts with the car. In vastly different conditions I enjoyed it about 100-times as much as the Cup and I'm almost certain on the same day and in the same conditions an amateur like me would get much closer to a representative lap time in the almost priceless GT3 R Hybrid than the GT3 Cup. So I guess that means the Cup car is the perfect introduction to learning the craft of GT racing and that the GT3 R Hybrid is an endurance racer's dream.
Story: Jethro Bovingdon
gtpurelyporsche dot com
October 24, 2012, 4:10 am
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