GT3 Cup Tested on Track

When you get an invitation from Porsche Supercup driver, Larry ten Voorde, to drive his 992 GT3 Cup, there’s only one thing you can do: fasten your seat belt and enjoy the ride!

- Sandor van Es

Please don’t wreck it. I need my car in Imola next week.” The words of Larry ten Voorde echo through my head as I roar down the main straight of Zandvoort, the infamous track on the Netherlands’ North Sea coast. I’m behind the wheel of Larry’s 911 GT3 Cup, the machine in which the Dutchman goes for the double in this year’s Porsche Supercup and Carrera Cup Germany. Besides the usual smell of oil and petrol there’s still a hint of fresh paint inside the cockpit. In a one-make series where each hundredth of a second counts, most of the teams enter brand-new cars each year. As is the case at GP Elite, the team that Larry belongs to.

As the grandstands and the pit buildings flash by and I approach the Tarzan corner at well over 150mph, I realise it’s quite brave of Larry to let me drive a car that got its shakedown just a few hours earlier. I don’t want to give the mechanics extra work while dealing with a gruelling season in Supercup, so I hit the brakes at a safe 150 metres before Tarzan.

The brake bias is manually adjustable, and because of the cold asphalt conditions I’ve turned it slightly more to the rear. The unpowered installation needs quite a bit of muscle power from the right or left leg (depending on which foot you use). As long as the steering wheel is straight, they can be dosed perfectly. Nevertheless, you still need to carefully load up the front tyres – which have more camber than on a standard GT3 – before putting maximum pressure to the pedal, otherwise you risk a lockup. Once the car is settled, the deceleration is incredible. The stopping power of a regular 911 GT3 is already far above average, but on slicks it literally takes your breath away.