Porsche 911 GT3 Will Soldier On With Naturally-Aspirated Engine, Manual Gearbox

Die-hard Porsche fans were in an uproar when the Porsche 911 came out with a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter flat-six engine. While the regular 911 lineup may have gone down the turbocharged route, Australia’s Drive claims that the GT3 will stick to a naturally-aspirated engine.

The info came straight from Porsche’s head of GT motorsport and GT road cars, Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser, who said: “A normally aspirated engine still fits a sports car. You can not achieve the same with a turbocharged engine.”

The decision to stick with naturally-aspirated engines, at least to Walliser, is because of emissions. Not putting a turbocharged engine into Porsche’s collectable machines “is mainly driven by emissions regulations,” he said and that the brand will hold out “as long as we can.”

A recent report from earlier this month reported that the upcoming 911 GT3 will come with a turbocharged flat-six and be sold with an eight-speed PDK gearbox only. According to Walliser, that won’t happen.

Speculation has also pointed towards the possibility of a mid-engine layout for the 911, but Walliser denies that rumor, too. According to him, the engine “is in the right place… it’s in the back.” That makes it sound like the 911 won’t be moving towards a mid-engine format any time soon

The same stands for the manual gearbox. Walliser stated that the manual gearbox in the 911 GT3 “matches very well” with the engine’s liveliness. He claimed that the last car to ever be built would be a sports car: “I know it more precise – it’s a GT3 manual.”