Porsche 911 GT3 Rally Appreciation!

By Daud Gonzalez - March 4, 2020

Porsche 911 GT3 race cars fly through a mixture of mud, ice, and gravel on the way to glory.

When I see a 911 on the street, the last thing that comes to my mind is flying it through the dirt and grime at 100+ MPH. When I see a 911 GT3, I couldn’t imagine even scraping the underside of the front bumper over a speed bump. Not without intense spinal compression and simultaneous tears, at least. However, I, like many motorsport fans forget from time to time that Porsche didn’t just build its motorsport legacy on the tarmac. The German powerhouse has done so much more than their 19 overall wins at Le Mans or other major endurance races.

The company also has managed to secure four Monte Carlo Rally wins, one of the oldest on-going races in the world. This includes a stunning three consecutive wins from 1968 to 1970, all won in a 911. Not to mention, a couple of wins at the iconic Paris-Dakar rally in 1984 and 1986. This time period would actually go on to shape one of the most cherished of Porsche models, the 959. After the success in 1984 with the 953 (a rally-focused test car based on the 911), the technology tested on that vehicle would shape the 959, Porsche’s bespoke rally car for Group B racing. This car became known for being incredibly advanced for its time, pioneering all-wheel-drive systems in sports cars and twin-turbo technology. It is safe to say that without the 959, there would be no turbo or AWD 911s.

Thus, clearly Porsche has its history ingrained in rally sport. As a result, we thought it would be appropriate to have a little bit of an appreciation post for the brand’s rally history with some awesome clips of some 911s going 10/10ths on track. Thanks to Rallye-Start on YouTube, we get an awesome compilation of just that. So please enjoy watching some 996 and 997 GT3s pull handbrakes around every hairpin, go flat out over 10-foot jumps, and oversteer their way to glory.

Attending one of these rally events in Europe must be a wild spectacle when there is a cast as stunning as in this video. Obviously these events attract a lot of attention and crowds love the action. Rally spectators are known to be some times as crazy as the drivers with how close they stand to the apexes and corners of these racecourses. Can we blame them though? There are few things as intoxicating as a Porsche Motorsport flat-six engine blowing your eardrums out. Cheers to the rally fans out there, there is definitely something special about the sport.