The facelifted Porsche 911 GT3 spotted on the Nürburgring

Work on the new Porsche 911 family continues and we have a new set of spy photos showing the upcoming facelifted 911 GT3. The model is currently undergoing pre-production evaluations and our spy photographers have captured a prototype being rolled around the Nürburgring. Interestingly, almost the entire vehicle was uncamouflaged.

In the photos, the front of the vehicle does not appear to have been camouflaged, but the rear is covered with a black tape that covers part of the bumper. Additional false body panels attached to the bumper create a visually disturbing shape but clearly this is not the final shape of the rear fascia. Also, it looks like the rear diffuser has been changed – the vertical elements are bigger and more prominent on the refreshed model.

19 Pictures

Just because there’s no front-end camo doesn’t mean there won’t be any visual tweaks, though. We believe that Porsche is only in the early stages of developing the facelifted 911 GT3 (992) and that the company is saving additional modifications for later stages of testing. Anecdotally, the super sports car was first spotted in July this year, when a different prototype sported a slightly different rear face camouflage.

We have almost no details regarding the powertrain of the facelifted model. We think the engine under the giant rear spoiler will remain unchanged in general, but could be tweaked to provide a bit more power. Currently, the 911 GT3 uses a naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six engine that develops 510 horsepower (374 kilowatts) and 469 Newton meters of torque. It can be mated to a six-speed manual gearbox or a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox.

Just recently, Porsche unveiled the new 911 GT3 RS, featuring a seriously advanced aerodynamic package and a more powerful iteration of the 4.0-litre engine. In this application, the flat-six engine develops 525 hp (386 kW) thanks to new camshafts with modified profiles and a unique motorsport-derived throttle valve intake system. It will be interesting to see what improvements the updated 911 GT3 will receive and if there will be any components borrowed from the RS model.