Is this a Porsche 911 GT3 without a wing?
Technically you’re correct, but there’s more to the GT3 Touring than meets the eye. For instance, did you know the ‘Touring’ name was first use on the 2.7 Carrera RS from 1973? This is a less extreme makeover, but one that definitely tries to channel the analogue 911s of old.

What’s the difference between this and a GT3, then?
There’s the deletion of the regular GT3’s fixed wing, of course, replaced with a classic pop-up rear deck, albeit embellished with a ‘GT3 Touring’ badge and a unique lip spoiler on the trailing edge.

You can have any gearbox you like, so long as it’s a six-speed manual, and inside the trim is kept classic – all-leather and cloth, no racy Alcantara allowed here. You’re also banned from adding the Clubsport pack, with its fire extinguisher and roll cage. Other than that, it’s as per the GT3, with all the same options (ceramic brakes, nose lift, LED headlights, Chrono Package, audio upgrades), which is marvellous news.

Need a refresher? There are no rear seats, although you can add them back in at no extra cost. We wouldn’t, the two-tier void it leaves swallows whatever luggage you care to throw at it. There are also 20-inch centre-locking wheels, a 44mm wider and 25mm lower stance than the base Carrera, and four-wheel steering. All as standard. Oh, and a 4.0-litre flat six touched by the hand of God, with 9,000rpm to play with. Our 2017 engine of the year, no less.

Hang on a minute, isn’t this just a 911R without stripes?
Wondered when this was going to come up. Yes, there are glaring similarities between this and the limited-run 911R, currently swapping hands for silly money. They are both products of Porsche’s GT department, both do without rear appendages, both feature rev-hungry flat-sixes and both have six-speed manual gearboxes.

However, the 911R has the older 4.0-litre engine, capped at 8,500rpm, a magnesium roof, carbon bonnet and front fenders, and weighs in at 1,370kg compared to the GT3 Touring’s 1,413kg.

We quizzed Porsche GT boss Andreas Preuninger on this touchy subject and he was keen to stress that if you’re lucky enough to drive the 911R and GT3 Touring back to back, the R’s unique chassis setting make it, relatively at least, a more frenetic, energy-sapping experience.

He also confirmed that the Touring wasn’t merely devised to give 911R speculators sweaty palms – the 911R was the short production run guinea pig that proved there was a thirst for this kind of car, this is the marginally more mainstream and affordable result. The Touring Pack is a no-cost option on your GT3, so the price remains £111,802.

How does it drive? Let me guess, like a GT3?
Bingo! An experience made all the more enjoyable by the fact that this is now a full-on sleeper. Only those that know will know just how special this car is. Honesty session: we drove it largely on a handful of spectacular, but relatively narrow and twisty mountain passes in Southern France. It being December and all, it was also wearing winter tyres – something Preuninger claims hobbled it to only 40 per cent of its capability.

We’d love to see what happens when you uncork the other 60 per cent, because my word can this thing shift. And not just in a straight line. Yes, clinging on while it thrashes the final 1,000rpm and really opens its pipes is something we should all get to experience once – like skydiving or the Pamplona bull run – but it’s the speed you can carry through the corners, the clarity of the steering and how late you can stand on the brakes (despite or test car being on steels not ceramics, for the full retro effect) that demolish any road you point it at.

And a word for the six-speed gearbox (bravo GT department for refusing to move to seven gears), a precision tool that’s not only satisfying to paddle around, but forces you to constantly asses where you are in the rev range, plan ahead, simply take part more than you do with the point-and-shoot PDK.

On a dry track, on Pirelli Trofeos, perhaps I could find the point where rear downforce was lacking, but not on public roads, not without feeling the long arm of Le Flic. And then, when it’s time to do some actual touring, its lopes along the motorway brilliantly, too.

Don’t tell me, it’s sold out…
Nope, they’re building GT3s until the middle of 2018, but you better be quick to try and get yourself a build slot. Whether you go for the GT3 or GT3 Touring is really a matter of personal taste.

Do you like appearing on stranger’s Instagram accounts? Get a wing. Do you prefer to retreat from the limelight and focus more on driving the damn thing? Touring it is. Or you could always shell out triple the price for a 911R. The choice is yours.

Remember the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring Package that Porsche released a few months ago? Turns out, Porsche had reasons for releasing that version of the 911, and it had nothing to do with adding another iteration for the sake of having one. According to 911 boss August Achleitner, the 911 T was created in part as a response to the ridiculous second-hand price the Porsche 911 R is going for these days. It’s rare for an automaker like Porsche to bother itself with what’s happening in the second-hand car market, but, apparently, the bigwigs at Stuttgart didn’t like how flippers have gone amok over the super rare 911 R by jacking up its price to seven figures. So, it responded with the 911 GT3 Touring Package, a more affordable version of the 911 R that’s cheaper and has no set production number.

You can argue that this is something exotic automakers should have done a long time ago to combat flippers who have little interest in the beyond making money out of it. But, the truth is, doing something like this usually doesn’t make sense from a business perspective. Costs run up, workers work more, and there’s a chance that the exclusive model loses its exclusivity.

Yet, despite those reasons, Porsche still went ahead and released the 911 GT3 Touring Package. August Achleitner explained the company’s reason for releasing the 911 GT3 T, telling Road & Trackthat if the car can help keep the prices a “little bit lower for the average customers of cars, it’s better.”

Achleitner added that Porsche was willing to sacrifice the happiness of its high-end customers who bought the 911 GT3 for their use because the company doesn’t like the fact that other people bought the car just to make money out of it.

So the company decided to release the 911 T with the purpose of having a lot of similarities to its 911 R counterpart. That said, the two cars aren’t identical either. The 911 R, for example, uses carbon fiber for its hood and fenders and has magnesium for its roof. The 911 T doesn’t have those specs, but it does have a new 4.0-liter flat-six engine that produces the exact 500-horsepower as the 911 R, but with an extra 500 more usable revs at its disposal.

Only time will tell if this strategy ends up being a good one for Porsche, but it is refreshing to see an exotic automaker that still has the sensibilities to listen to the cries of its frustrated fan base. Here’s to hoping that the arrival of the 911 GT3 Touring Package works out well for everyone involved.

August Achleitner explained the company’s reason for releasing the 911 GT3 T, telling Road & Trackthat if the car can help keep the prices a “little bit lower for the average customers of cars, it’s better.”

Achleitner added that Porsche was willing to sacrifice the happiness of its high-end customers who bought the 911 GT3 for their use because the company doesn’t like the fact that other people bought the car just to make money out of it.

Your instant expert guide to the fastest, greenest and lairiest GT3 RS ever

There's more power

Of course there’s more power. But this is a Porsche RS, so we’re talking incremental here. It wouldn’t do that the standard GT3 matches the 500-odd horsepower output of the old GT3 RS, unless the new car increases the stakes even further. So, Porsche has liberated a few more ponies from the 4.0-litre flat-six for a 520bhp ‘maximum’. That’s pretty conservative; Porsche insiders admit it could have homologated a figure more like 530bhp, but the folks there like to be modest. That also means it should be able to produce its quoted 0-62mph time of 3.2 seconds everywhere - whether you’re doing so on a hot desert road in Dubai, or the slip road onto an unrestricted autobahn in the GT3 RS’s motherland.

It goes up to 9…

That’s thousand, revs, and again in line with the GT3’s screaming, naturally aspirated flat-six. That’s also 200rpm up on its predecessor. In the back of the RS, it breathes differently over the mere GT3, thanks to the Turbo-derived body’s intakes in front of the rear wheels, while there’s a different exhaust, too. It’s not about power but immediacy, say Porsche’s people, so everything from the breathing, electronics and more has been worked on to make the engine react that little bit quicker. We’ve sat alongside Mr W. Rohrl driving it on a frozen Finnish lake and he tells us it’s “much better”, and we’re not about to argue the toss with a driving god.

It's lighter, naturally

It wouldn’t be an RS without some weight savings, after all; the GT department has taken 5kg out of the carpets alone. Thing is, the internet forums will be ablaze with keyboard heroes, as Porsche won’t legally be able to quote its new RS in its very lightest specification, as it has previously. It’ll likely be the same weight as the outgoing car on paper, then - 1420kg, if it’s not ingrained in your RS grey matter reference library - so get ready for some angry internet people. It is all apparently down to a change in the way cars are homologated, something to do with options and percentages of weight. Anyway, if you want a super-light RS, there’ll be the option of the Weissach Pack, as per the GT2 RS, with magnesium wheels, and carbon body parts (the roof and bonnet) combining to help shed around 29kg from the kerbweight and a chunk more from your wallet.

The GT3 RS has gone green

Not in the environmental sense, but the colour. Porsche is calling it Lizard Green. The launch colour of the GT3 RS is the result of GT car boss, Andreas Preuninger, seeing a similarly coloured vintage RS at Rennsport Reunion in the USA a few years ago. Apparently the production team asked if he was crazy, but Porsche has form introducing, or re-evoking, classic colours with the RS - notably Lava Orange and Ultra Violet with the last 911 GT3 RS car. It’s not the first green RS, remember – Viper Green was one of the launch colours of the 997 GT3 RS. Like its 997 predecessor, the new GT3 RS brings back the GT3 RS graphics down the sills, just in case the massive rear spoiler, punctured front wings and channelled bonnet and roof aren’t tell-tales enough.

Porsche reckons it'll do 7m 05s at the 'Ring

As sure as GT3 RS follows GT3, the new RS will chase its tyre-tracks around the Nürburgring. The standard GT3’s lap time is now 7 minutes 12.7 seconds (better than the old GT3 RS’s 7 min 20 secs) so it has that to beat. What is certain is it’ll not get close to its turbo-nutter 700hp GT2 RS relation’s bonkers 6 min 47.3 second time, but Andreas Preuninger says: “I think it will end up at 7 minutes 5 seconds or something like that. It’s hugely quick.” Most of that, says the GT boss, is down to the tyre and chassis revisions, only around 1 second or so attributable to the marginally increased output from its engine.

It's essentially a GT2 RS underneath

Basically the bits underneath are GT2 RS, so that means every joint in the suspension is solid-mounted – bar a single one that’s related to the rear-wheel-steering system. That rear-axle steering itself has been finessed to improve speed and turn-in response at lower speeds, as well as aiding stability at higher ones. The spring and damper rates are all but identical to its big brother, too, and having driven that on UK roads, it achieves a beguiling mix of composure yet authoritative control. It’ll ride even better still if you option that Weissach Package, as the magnesium wheels shave a total of 12.5kg off the unsprung weight. Spend more on the PCCB (i.e. carbon ceramic) brakes too and you’ll drop about the same amount again.

The aero's been honed

True to RS form, the way it exploits the air travelling up, over, around, through and under it has been finessed. The biggest change centres around those new NACA ducts on the bonnet. Again, they’re derived from the GT2 RS, channelling air though the body to help cool the front brakes. That helps airflow under the car too, while also cleaning up the air up and over to the body to the rear wing. The effectiveness of the NACA ducts still surprises the GT department – the initial goal was merely brake cooling; those other benefits a useful, unexpected gain. As Preuninger admits: “You wouldn’t believe how much empirical stuff is still involved; despite all the computers, you have to try it out.”

It’s good for business

Every time Porsche releases a new GT model, it cannot build them quickly enough. That’ll certainly be the case here, with the GT3 RS likely to be over-subscribed. The previous car sold nearly 5,000 units globally, and Porsche is always looking at ways to increase capacity on the 911 line. For UK customers, that’s likely to mean, as with the previous RS, that early customers will have to stick with the standard range of colours, because Porsche’s Paint to Sample option, where they’ll paint it any colour you like, would slow the build process too much. Likewise, delays in production for the magnesium wheels with the Weissach Pack mean it’ll be a two-stage option, with the earliest customers unable to order their car with those lightweight wheels.

It will only feature an automatic gearbox

Yes, as it’s an RS, forget any hope of doing any old-fashioned three-pedal foot and hand work in the stripped and caged interior. There’s always the GT3 Touring for that, or a GT3 without the no-cost PDK option. There is a man in America who had the previous GT3 RS converted to a manual by using a 911R six-speeder, but that’s something that’s unlikely to ever happen again – unless you know any different. Quite simply, the PDK is faster; finger-flipped paddles and seven gears mean that not a lot, short of a hypercar or GT2 RS, will have the capacity to come close on track. The PDK has, of course, been honed for the new GT3 RS, featuring different bearings inside, while the rear axle ratio differs to compensate for the larger (21-inch) rear wheel and tyre package the RS brings over the standard GT3.

The man behind it isn’t your typical idea of a German engineer

He’s been associated with Porsche’s GT division cars since the second-generation 996 GT3, but Andreas Preuninger isn’t what you’d imagine a typical engineer to be. He rides KTM dirt bikes in his spare time (taking the number plates off so dog-walkers can’t serve him up to the law), hand-builds electric guitars and amps with his son, competes in rifle- and pistol-shooting competitions, and has a bright yellow Dodge Ram pick-up with a 5.7-litre Hemi in it that he’s considering supercharging. That’s his “gardening truck”, apparently. If he’s not busy with all of that, or putting miles on development GT cars, he’ll be on his 600bhp boat dreaming up the next GT department creation. Apparently, the 911R was a product of such big-horsepower aquatic pondering…

The Porsche motorsport department is presenting Weissach’s latest treat at the Geneva Motor Show: the 911 GT3 RS with motorsport chassis and 383-kW (520-hp), four-litre, high-speed naturally aspirated engine. The new high-performance sports car is based on the 911 GT3, which has been refined still further to combine the performance-enhanced engine with a running-gear setup that features re-calibrated rear axle steering designed for maximum dynamics and precision. The 911 GT3 RS accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds, reaching a top speed of 312 km/h. Following the launch of the 911 GT3 and the 911 GT2 RS, this latest release will see Porsche present its third GT road-approved sports car within a year.

Aerodynamics and interior based on the race trim

Aerodynamics have determined the design of the wide, weight-optimised body with its classic rigid rear wing. The racing look continues into the interior with full bucket seats made of carbon to provide secure lateral support in response to high-level driving dynamics. Lightweight door panels with storage nets and opening loops, reduced sound absorption and the new lightweight rear lid further emphasise the consistency of the material choices.

The most powerful naturally aspirated engine at 520 hp

The four-litre, six-cylinder naturally aspirated engine from Porsche in the new 911 GT3 RS pushes the sports car to new limits: The flat engine delivers 15 kW (20 hp) more than the engine in the previous model and the 911 GT3. Together with a speed range reaching up to 9,000 rpm, it was the ideal choice as a thoroughbred sports engine. Combined with the specially calibrated seven-speed PDK, the high-performance engine guarantees an outstanding driving performance.

Motorsport-inspired chassis and Clubsport package

Technology straight from motorsport ensures that the chassis offers exceptional driving dynamics. Ball joints on all arms provide even greater precision than conventional elastokinematic bearings. 20-inch lightweight wheels with newly developed 265/35 sports tyres on the front axle enhance agility and steering behaviour, while 21 inch wheels with 325/30 tyres at the rear axle improve traction.

As with all current GT sports cars, the Clubsport package is also available for the 911 GT3 RS at no extra cost. The package includes a roll-over bar, a manual fire extinguisher, preparation for a battery disconnect switch and a six-point belt for a sporty driving experience.

Weissach package and magnesium wheels for additional weight savings

For particularly ambitious drivers, the Porsche motorsport department has created an optional Weissach package for a further weight reduction. The package features additional carbon components for the chassis, interior and exterior, as well as optional magnesium wheels. In its lightest configuration, this package reduces the weight of the 911 GT3 RS down to 1,430 kilogrammes.

Market launch and prices

The new 911 GT3 RS is available to order now. It will be launched in Germany from mid-April 2018. Prices for the new high-performance sports car start at 195,137 euro, including VAT and country-specific equipment.

*Bar one. Of these hardcore 911s, which one would you take home?

You might remember that we were on the Isle of Man to drive the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Well, Porsche used that as an excuse to bring along some other playthings. One example of every GT3 RS yet made. Except a 997.2 RS 4.0. They made up for that with the Carrera RS, the granddaddy of them all.

This was fascinating, the opportunity to drive each of them back to back clarified their characteristics and allowed you to trace personality traits back along the line. The first car that Andreas Preuninger, head of Porsche’s GT cars division was wholly responsible for was the 996 GT3 RS, the first RS of the modern era. So each and every one has his mark on it.

First, let’s take you even further back…

1972 Porsche 911 Carrera RS Touring

Insured for £750,000, but what a sweetie to drive. This particular car is the one that pointed at the sky from the tip of the sculpture at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2013, which gives you some idea where Porsche rates it in its pantheon of models. It’s a honey, not nearly as dated in its dynamics as you might expect, nor as frighteningly tail happy as legend would have it. Still swift enough to keep a hot hatch on its toes in a straight line, and way more enthralling when you get to a corner.

2003 Porsche 911 996 GT3 RS

Built as an homologation special, the first GT3 RS was never initially intended to become a permanent addition to the range. And then people drove it. Despite the fact that fewer than 120 came to the UK and only 680 or so were built in total, the reputation it developed meant its future was assured.

Killer fact: the 3.6-litre engine was rated at the same 381bhp as the standard GT3. In reality, the mods made meant every car left the factory with well over 400bhp. You can tell. This still feels a fast car. Soaring flat six, sweeter manual shift than the 997 that replaced it, but the later cars also make it feel a bit simplistic, not quite so thoroughly developed. The front end doesn’t have the same bite as later cars, so the chassis balance errs towards understeer. You can tell this was a starting point.

2006 Porsche 911 997.1 GT3 RS

With the 997 came added seriousness. The 996 had been based around a standard 2WD bodyshell. A desire for extra grip meant wider tracks were needed, so the 997 used the shell of the 4WD versions. The engine was still a 3.6, but official power now broke the 400bhp barrier.

The 997 GT3 RS generation is the purist to drive. Simple as that. When Porsche came round to revisit the RS, it could see what it could improve and the result is a thrillingly mechanical, raw car to drive. It’s superb, the 997.1 RS, but for one thing…

2009 Porsche 911 997.2 GT3 RS

…the car that replaced it. This is peak GT3 RS as far as I’m concerned. The later cars have more downforce, cornering speed and a steely-eyed racetrack focus. This is all about thrills and it doesn’t really matter where you get them. The engine had grown to a 3.8-litre, and sounds like a clatter of loose cogs until the revs rise. Then it’s pure magnificence. Yes, the gearchange is awkward and stiff (always has been), but that just makes it all the more satisfying when you get it right.

But whatever it was they put in Weissach’s water supply system in 2009, the result is utter magic. The quality of the damping, the way it relishes the road every bit as much as you do, the eagerness to attack, the steering, the effort you have to put in and the reward you get out. This one, please.

2015 Porsche 911 991.1 GT3 RS

A quest for further speed and performance led Porsche to use the Turbo body for the current generation. And then covering it with slats and wings. This is where Porsche got serious about aerodynamics. Where the original 996 GT3 RS’s wing had developed a modest 35kg of downforce at 125mph, and the 997 was designed to have no more than negative lift, the 991 was all about the downforce. 330kg of it at maximum speed. That’s now risen to 500kg for the latest car.

More controversially, this was also the car that introduced the PDK twin clutch gearbox, thus creating Porsche’s current manual vs PDK dilemma and leading to the creation of machines such as the 911R. A different, more polished driving experience to the earlier cars, but still, in the grand scheme of things, right up there.

2018 Porsche 911 991.2 GT3 RS

Anyone else think this might just be the best looking GT3 RS of all? Maybe it’s the Naca ducts in the bonnet. Another point in question: you’d imagine that the big jumps in GT3 RS development would come from one generation to the next, and yes, that’s where the fundamentals change – the switch to PDK gearboxes and so on. But these mid-life updates are astonishing for how they hone and sharpen the character and abilities of the car. It happened with the 997, and it’s happened again with the 991.

A rethink of the suspension set-up has made the front end way more precise and helped the car have a much more mid-engined balance. Gone is the understeer of the original 996 GT3 RS. With this one there are no foibles you have to drive around, just a hardcore focus on speed. The question for Porsche is surely where to take the next generation GT3 RS. Perhaps mid-engined like the RSR racer? Thoughts below, please.

There’s one place where you can get great fried chicken livers on a Sunday morning in Georgia, before church is out. It’s a low-ceiling kind of place, tacked on to a gas station, the hallmark of fine low-priced dining across the south.

Over the first glorious spring weekend this year, I had just the thing to get there. And I knew the fastest way to get there, not the highway route, but a snake-backed two-lane with enough kinks to merit its own DSM classification.

It’s the 2018 Porsche 911 GT3, a car so blisteringly fast it set a stunning 7:12.7 lap time on the Nurburgring.

With the 911 GT3, Porsche isn’t chasing raw numbers, though. “We’re chasing a feel,” Porsche’s sports-car guru Andreas Preuninger told us last year.

How does it get there? All the usual freak flags fly with its 4.0-liter flat-6 engine. Like any other living, breathing creature, the 911 GT3 pinks up from its very first breath of air, in this case the exit ramp off GA-400.

Torque builds almost instantaneously off the line, but the GT3 is a high flyer, too. It charges up to 500 horsepower at 8,250 rpm and 339 pound-feet of torque, as it shrieks to a heady 9,000-rpm redline, served up thanks to a beefy crankshaft and connecting rods.

There’s no missing its arrival or its departure through the first and best esses off the highway. The GT3 dons two exhaust resonance flaps to generate all the sonorous sounds. Flung from crest to curve after it leaves four-lane state highway, the GT3 crackles and howls at 6,000 rpm as it rounds off 45-mph curves at nearly twice that speed.

You don’t need to flip through all its gears to extract curse words of joy, but you’ll want to. A 6-speed manual transmission weighs less (3,116 pounds versus 3,153 pounds) and sports the sports-car golden number of pedals—but Porsche’s dual-clutch gearbox comes closer to godliness. With seven forward speeds, and paddle shift controls that toggle the 911 GT3 into the frothiest and most playful part of its powerband, the PDK GT3 zaps more than a half-second off the car’s 0-60 mph time, 3.2 seconds to the manual’s 3.8 seconds.

Its top track speed stands at 197 mph with PDK, and 198 mph with the manual transmission. Sixty percent of that or more shows up on its big dial.

Graciously, Porsche sticks the 911 GT3 to the road with 245/35ZR-20s in the front, 305/30ZR-20s in the back. But it’s a host of diffusers, air blades, intakes, ram air ducts, and a rear wing 0.8 inches taller than most 911s that push the rear end harder against the earth and feed the flat-6 all the oxygen it needs to create free radicals.

You’ll never look back at the specs for those figures. You’ll never look back in the GT3 if you can avoid it; that wing cuts the world in two, and renders anything in your rear view a memory. It’s funny at first, to see other 911s and F-Types with smaller power-operated spoilers and to realize they’re not 100 percent serious. Then it’s just a little sad.

The GT3 does its best work on your ego. Click all the right buttons, send the PDK and the sport exhaust and the active dampers into their most rigidly defined programs, and the car turns most any driver into a demigod. It hosts a track precision app, nestled within its infotainment display, to measure lap times and grip levels, a fitness tracker for your driving habits.

Its sueded wheel seems to connect directly as it caresses corners. Rear-wheel steering dials in 1.5 degrees of opposite lock below 31 mph, but drops out of sight above 50 mph so the natural relationship between wheel angle and tire direction are restored.

You don’t want this car every day, unless the roads are freshly paved or meticulously maintained. The adaptive dampers are merely an excuse the get it from two-lane to two-lane. Cracked highways drive the GT3 nuts, send it scatter-brained across bumps like it’s forgotten its keys. A front-axle lift is a must if it’s garaged anywhere outside the coastal plain: a couple of degrees of driveway cant will scrape with the awful noise that only rank amateurs are supposed to make.

The few remaining 2018 GT3s aren’t much changed from those in the year prior. A GT Sport-style steering wheel mimics the one in the hallowed 918 Spyder. The only big difference comes with the sticker price.

You can’t put a number on feel-good driving. You can put a tariff on it. The base price for the 2018 911 GT3 is $144,650. Add composite brakes, front axle lift, LED headlights, full bucket seats (if your hips are slim), $4,220 worth of Chalk paint, and silver gray seat belts, and you’re in for $168,520.

Or you can line up for the 911 GT3 RS, which gets hood ducts and other aero for twice the downforce of this car, as well as 20 more horsepower and 8 additional pound-feet of torque. It’s two ticks quicker to 60 mph, but has no manual option and has a few thousand more dollars tacked on its out-the-door price.

I head in the door and duck a little into the low-ceiling gas-station food stop, then pull out an unwelcome smartphone and tally up the differences. A pastor’s working his fevered pompadour on dialing-for-dollars TV. The chicken livers smell fried, and fried right.

My plate’s empty.

I don’t eat chicken livers.

Porsche is out testing a new generation of the 911, the 992, and the latest prototype spotted is for the car's Turbo Cabriolet variant.

The new 911 will be revealed late this year or early next, initially in Carrera and Carrera S guises.

The 911 Turbo should trail the basic models by six months to a year. We expect it to go on sale in the United States late next year as a 2020 model.

The prototype may look like testers for the Carrera Cabrio. However, a number of clues identify it as the Turbo Cabrio.

The pumped fenders are housing a widened track, while the gaping hole in the flanks and the cooling vents at either side of the rear fascia indicate an engine with extra potency. This prototype still sports a pair of round exhaust tips but on the final model should be a set of quad-exhaust tips with a squared-off design.

The powertrain for the new Turbo will be a twin-turbocharged flat-6, as was the case for its predecessors. With the current Turbo putting out 540 horsepower, expect this new one to have something in the 580-600 range. All-wheel drive and rear-wheel steering will be standard.

Though yet to be confirmed, it’s possible the Turbo S will pair an electric motor with the twin-turbo engine to deliver something approaching 700 hp. Recall, Porsche is once again open to electrifying the 911, and the next Turbo is a good starting point. It fits with Porsche’s top-down strategy for electrification, which has seen a hybrid powertrain used for the range-topping Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid.

Other Turbo-spec upgrades over the Carrera should include stiffer suspension, carbon-ceramic brakes, and more complex aero.

2018 Porsche 911 GT3 with Touring Package first drive: Leather over downforce

It's a GT3 minus a rear wing, for those who want to talk loud in a world of shouters

Don’t let the placard at the back fool you, this is not a GT3 Touring, at least not technically. What Porsche is offering here is the GT3 with the Touring Package. It's a no-cost option package offered on the GT3 that deletes the fixed rear wing and mandates a manual transmission -- no PDKs allowed -- which means the base price is the same $144,650. Compared to the standard GT3, the Touring Package-equipped car looks subdued. But from all other perspectives, it’s an aggressive and attention-grabbing 911.

The front clip is still filled with scoops and splitters and vents. The wheels are still large and center-locking. And the body is the same 1.7 inches wider than the base Carrera. From a distance, a layman could be fooled to believe this is a base Carrera, until the telling “GT3 touring” badge comes into view. It lies above the variable rear spoiler, which, by the way, has a Gurney flap attached.

Porsche built the GT3 Touring for folks who want a relative sleeper -- or maybe, perhaps, for folks who want a high-revving, naturally aspirated flat-six and a six-speed manual transmission and don’t really care about downforce and lap times. In my mind, that’s a very narrow group. After all, the standard GT3 can also be purchased with a manual transmission. And rear wings are cool, especially when they serve a genuine, more than visual, purpose.

No matter, I’m sure if Porsche is building it, those people exist. And they’ll get a sensational car. The 4.0-liter pumps out 500 hp and 339 lb-ft of torque and revs up all the way to a screaming 9,000 rpm. More than motor, the car sits an inch lower than the base Carrera, and the wider wheel arches house massive wheels and tires. It all amounts to as razor sharp a feel on the road as the standard GT3.

It’s endlessly entertaining. Find a nice winding bit of tarmac and just let loose. The seats feel cozy and supportive no matter how much speed you carry into a corner. If anything, it’s too much car for the road. The beauty of most all Porsches, though, is they inspire driver confidence and quickly encourage you to hurry up and along. Go fast! Row through the gears and hear the fantastic-every-time, never-gets-old, mechanically brilliant 9,000-rpm engine speed. If it isn’t clear, I like the way it sounds.

And it sounds this good because it is a GT3. Porsche just yanked off the wing and a couple of bits and bobs. Aside from the Clubsport Package and leather replacing synthetic suede here and there, all the nontouring 911 GT3 options are also available. That includes things like the carbon-ceramic brakes and hydraulic front-lift system. It’s a GT3 that wants to blend in and maybe offer a tad more luxury in feel, but still be a hoss on the track.

But I keep getting stuck on the fact that you can get the manual in the standard GT3. So, the Touring Package must be for people who prefer leather over downforce, which is fine. It just leads me to point at the 23 other 911 variants (not an exaggeration) with varying levels performance and luxury. More than anything, the GT3 with the Touring Package is proof that, no matter your tastes, Porsche will build a 911 to meet them.ON SALE: Now
BASE PRICE: $144,650
POWERTRAIN: 4.0-liter H6, RWD, six-speed manual
OUTPUT: 500 hp @ 8,250 rpm, 339 lb-ft @ 6,000 rpm
CURB WEIGHT: 3,225 lb (est)
0-60 MPH: 3.8 sec
PROS: Amazing engine that never gets old to hear wind up. Brilliant chassis.
CONS: If you want a Porsche without a wing, get a GTS or a Carrera S, or a Turbo, or a Targa or a ...

Rather than the temporary third brake light on this test mule, earlier spy shots on a nearly undisguised example (above) indicate that Porsche intends to incorporate the illumination into the vent on the rear deck.

While not visible in this clip, we know that the new 911's cabin gets major upgrades. An analog tachometer remains in the center of the instrument panel, but digital displays now flank it. The center stack is rather short, which should help outward visibility. The infotainment display is on top, and the center console features an array of chunky switches.

The next-gen 911's powertrain remains a mystery. It might retain the existing 3.0-liter biturbo flat six but with updates to boost the output. Customers looking for more power can wait for the more powerful Turbo, and a more efficient hybrid model is several years away.

Speculation puts the new 911's reveal at the Paris Motor Show in October and for sales begin in early 2019. A multitude of variants, including the convertible, GT3, and many others, will roll out over time.

The journey of Ferdinand Porsche's daughter through the family company shows what a turbulent century the last one has been.

Ferry Porsche’s sister had an adventurous life. Born in 1904, she never intended to play a big role in her father's company. But history decided otherwise. Having studied art history and painting in Vienna, she married the lawyer Anton Piëch in 1928. The couple had four children, and spent the war years near Lake Zell in Austria, along with 35 other members of the Porsche clan.

In 1945, Louise’s father, Ferdinand, her brother Ferry and her husband Anton were arrested by the French army. With the help of a French lawyer, she succeeded in bailing them out in exchange for one million francs. When the bail amount was paid back one year later, it was almost worthless as a result of currency devaluations. According to Porsche, Louise spent it all on two pairs of shoes in Paris.

Louise Piëch played a huge role in Porsche avoiding nationalization after the war. She had all of Porsche KG Stuttgart's assets held in Austria transferred to her and her husband in October 1943, and incorporated into the newly founded “Porsche-Konstruktionen-Ges.m.b.H., headquartered in Gmünd. The remaining Porsche KG assets in Austria were bought up by Porsche-Konstruktionen GmbH and its Gmünd plant in 1947.

In 1949, the siblings moved the head office of “Porsche-Konstruktionen-Ges.m.b.H.” from Gmünd to Salzburg. Louise and Anton Piëch continued by importing VWs into Austria, while Ferry Porsche returned to Stuttgart. It was there in 1950 that he laid the foundations of today’s Porsche AG.

Ferdinand Porsche died in 1951, and only 18 months later, Louise's husband Anton also suffered a fatal heart attack. From 1952 on, the mother of four had to act as managing director of Porsche Holding in Austria. She could finally step back from the business in 1971, devoting the next 28 years to her love of landscape painting. Some of her art made its way to employees in the form of a Christmas card.

Louise Piëch got a fleet of personalized Porsches throughout the years as birthday presents, and her final one happened to be a 1989 Carrera 4, in silver, with a unique interior and the familiar plates featuring "S 200."

Perhaps the most interesting detail is the mottled mother-of-pearl fabric replacing the factory leather. It was reminiscent of the curtain employed in Porsche offices in the 1970s. The rest of the trim is wrapped in white-leather, with fluffy white edges. "Who the hell did that?"is a question often asked by dentist and current owner Clemens Frigge.

Yet the origins of this silver 964 Carrera 4 remain a secret to whoever makes an enquiry.

Today, it shares a hangar formerly used by the Canadian Army's tank fleet. With 64,000 miles on the clock, its original paint and all matching numbers, it's parked next to a Mercedes-Benz of a famous German private banker from the 1950s, a rare VW Beetle, and one of the Messerschmitt cabin scooters that are still roadworthy. Louise Piëch died in 1999, at the age of 94.

Do you remember the Porsche 911 R? The first one on sale in the U.S. was listed for nearly $700,000 in late 2016. It didn’t take long for secondhand 911 Rs to start demanding over $1 million. But now, just a couple of years later, the 911 R is estimated to go for the dirt-cheap cost of just $375,000 at auction.

This specific 911 R is number 749 of the 991 produced by Porsche, and one of 296 cars sent to the U.S. It was delivered to a California dealer in 2016, where it spent most of its time wasting away, presumably just a showroom trophy collecting dust, save for a few dozen miles. Days, weeks, months passed, and down went its value.

And now it’s going to be wheeled out in front of a jeering, jaded crowd, overexposed to its incredible performance and standout looks, shrugged off to the highest bidder at estimates ranging from just $325,000 to $375,000 at the RM Sotheby’s auction in Monterey later this month.

This green stripe over black, factory-condition faded icon doesn’t deserve this. And now somebody won’t treat it with the same respect as whoever paid closer to a million for theirs. It’s too bad.

That is until prices shoot right back up in however many years and the lucky bidder manages a massive profit.