Porsche 911 GT3 with Touring package tested: Is this still Touring – or is it already madness?

Old? Oh well. Who's old here? Just because a quote from Hildegard Knef serves as the starting point for the discussion about the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring? Well, there's nothing suitable from Miley Cyrus. In any case, the Ulm-born chansonnière said: "I have a simple recipe for staying fit: I run amok every day."

Perhaps it and the GT3 would have become best friends, you think, as the voluminous, slightly raspy brass fury of the naturally aspirated six-cylinder engine floods both the cockpit and the surrounding area just before 9,000 rpm. Because a relatively empty, nameless highway allows for a bit of speed racing. Conditions that the facelifted 911 GT3 somehow needs to demonstrate the potential of the four-liter engine, which has been exhaustively cleaned at immense expense. 9,000 rpm on the country road? You'll never get past second gear.

Well, such a highway is ultimately part of the appeal of this GT3, whose "Touring" name implies touring. You'll have to really push yourself, because the Porsche obviously doesn't have much straight-line stability – key word: double wishbone suspension with 255-series tires up front.

But hey, it's fine, it's fun because it represents a virtually extinct, raw style of driving that only a few vehicles offer anymore. What's more: it has a manual transmission. And the engine can certainly go slow, tolerates early upshifts, and generally seems considerably more torquey than the specs suggest: 450 Nm at 6250 rpm. While the engine, with a compression ratio of 13.3:1 and four catalysts, achieves these figures, it doesn't annoy you with pseudo-motorsport judder or air-pumping characteristics.

When the 6,250 rpm are reached, then, yes, then it's joy again! So how about a brisk lap around the Anneau du Rhin or at Hockenheim? Absolutely not, says Porsche. The Touring is at home on country roads. Only the reference to the standard Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires causes a lack of argument, which is concluded with a "It's just the way it is." Once again, the suspicion arises that the Porsches are primarily concerned with best times in the standard test disciplines, because with a speed of 75.2 km/h in the 18-meter slalom and 157.1 km/h during a double lane change, this 911 is right up there with the best cars.

What do you notice on country roads? Primarily, it's a boisterous, yet absolutely consistent steering response, as well as supreme driving stability – when you push hard. Country roads themselves rarely boast the best road surface quality, at least not those that offer a sports car-worthy variety of curve radii. Here, you really have to hold on tight to the 911, which is perfectly achieved thanks to the perfectly integrated, low seating position and the meticulously tuned electromechanical power steering.

While the Touring car enters the ring quite casually over every kind of bump, barely putting its body into vertical motion, but certainly putting its occupants in vertical motion, the fear of a lack of roadholding quickly grows. But the GT3 only reveals this in its price (more on that later), less so in its chassis. Because rev overshoots, clear indicators of a loss of grip, are absent – and you wonder how that's possible. But it is.

Before you've even uttered the words "dry sump lubrication" (the GT3 has it, of course), it fires you up. Really. Interestingly, well beyond the rev limit, often even beyond the power surge that kicks in just after 5000 rpm. Because at a maximum speed of 100 km/h, there's always plenty of power anyway.

So you concentrate on wrestling with the chassis, on the foil fight with the corners, but also on the straights, where you have to force yourself to walk instead of sprinting. Yes, as a GT3, the 911 puts the horns on all the other members of the family, turning the volume control up to 11, even though the scale ends at 10. Its eagerness to turn grabs you, its handling confidence inspires courage, its multifaceted engine grounds the entire package – to some extent.

Speaking of grounding: The incredible braking performance shouldn't go unmentioned. The measuring device only spits out deceleration values of around 13 m/s² for a few vehicles. Partly due to the tires, of course. Sure, they're just as suited to this 911 as the drivetrain and chassis.

But just because the Touring doesn't have a wing (it does have a steeper angle of attack for the extendable spoiler plus gurney compared to the base 911), has rear seating, and the front carbon shells therefore have a folding mechanism, doesn't mean it's focused on the country road. It would be a bit like sewing a smartphone pocket into the overalls of a world-class ski racer like Marco Odermatt and then telling him that he can ski with the pack on normal slopes, but under no circumstances can he ever win a downhill, a super-G, or a giant slalom. And with the smartphone in his overalls, his feet in his stiff racing boots would hurt after 15 minutes at the most, and the skis with their razor-sharp edges would only perform in the icy morning hours. Ultimately, it's not much different with the GT3 Touring.

While its dynamic driving potential can be impressively glimpsed on the K8310 or the L3110, it's hardly truly experienced. This is also due to the radical tires, which, without the holy duality of temperature (as high as possible) and humidity (as low as possible), rapidly shift their grip limit to the very bottom. In the less severe case, with just enough temperature and a slightly more than just damp road surface, you'll drive around within the pleasantly wide corridor of the electronic stability control.

Yes, okay, it's impressive how communicatively the GT3 announces the end of grip, both on the front and rear axles. So there's time to react, but hardly any time to laugh. The control limit shifts with the driving modes, in addition to the start-up mode, "Sport" and "Track," which can be individually programmed with regard to damper settings, the display of the information in the now fully digital driver information display, automatic double-declutching, and the control electronics. Nice: Porsche has provided large physical direct-selection buttons below the central monitor for the exhaust system flap control, the front axle lift function, the deactivation of stability and traction control, and for quick access to other assistance systems.

Turning off the electronic control system? Sure, that's possible. But then, at the very latest, it's time to head out onto a closed track. Flat surface, tight corners, wide turns. The slightly stiffer suspension settings in Track mode push the Porsche's foot pedals even harder, with grip increasing immensely by the second lap. The self-steering behavior is more likely to be slightly understeer under acceleration and oversteer under acceleration – the latter even more so during a sudden load change.

And as the boxer engine cools down with a crackling sound, certainty slowly dawns: Even in Touring form, the GT3 needs the racetrack more than any other 911. In addition, with the optional lightweight package (roof, stabilizer, coupling rods and rear axle thrust plate made of carbon fiber, shortened gearshift lever, magnesium rims, lightweight door panels), the Touring quickly breaks the quarter-million-euro barrier.

At that point, at the very latest, the thought will cross your mind that the Porsche lineup may very well contain the ideal 911 for country roads: the Carrera T with manual transmission. Starting at €146,800. Okay, with a turbo engine, but a very fine one. Meanwhile, naturally aspirated fans might want to take a look at a David Letterman quote: "The wonderful yesterday is the ordinary today in tomorrow's memory."