Meet the new boss

The 992-gen GT3 eschews big power gains for improvements where it really matters. Here’s everything you need to know

- HENRY CATCHPOLE

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT A LAP TIME. But before we get heavy with the numbers, I think it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate the aesthetics, because this new GT3 feels like a much bigger transformation than with previous generations. Devoid of its disguises, it looks startlingly more trim and taut than a standard 992. It’s as though, in order to match the kerb weight of its forebear, it didn’t just need a strict diet but full-on surgery. The way the standard car’s bulbous bottom has been sliced into. The way the lower front looks as though it has been pulled open and a jaw removed. The deeply sunken nostrils… it’s almost brutal.

It has to be the most aggressive GT3 to date. The most RS non-RS. Just look at the rear wing. Even regardless of the swan-neck design, the pierced black supports are so much more Rennsport than any other GT3. Below it, the prominently jutting vanes of the new rear diffuser ratchet up the aero ante even further. The wheels are now 20 inches in diameter at the front and 21 inches at the rear, matching the previous RS and filling the arches like a glass left unattended under a running tap. It’s serious stuff.

The colour, too, looks a little bit Miami and a little bit Riviera, but is in fact Shark Blue (code D5C). And while it’s striking, there’s a no-nonsense air about its non-metallic flatness. It means business.