911 (992) [Official] 2021 Porsche 911 GT3 (992 Series)
The Porsche 992 is the eighth generation of the Porsche 911 sports car, which was introduced at the Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles on 27 November 2018.
D
Deleted member 1071
When will Porsche finally reveal the Touring Package version ??
Centurion
Apex Apex Predator
Its worth mentioning that they are not separate models. If you have a GT3 allocation, you get to choose which of the two you would like.
Porsche might currently be prioritising getting a couple of GT3s produced before offering the touring.
TopspeedPT
Track Technician
In basic no gimmick engineering, Porsche is simply the best.
Porsche does exactly what is needed, not less, not more superfluous stuff because unsure if enough.
because it helps with rear engine. i think at some point too wide has no more benefit, could have diminishing returns. but got to ask an engineer for scientific explanation.
WBarnes
Subscriber
All I know is that the RS models tend to have even wider tyres, so there must be something to it.
Porsche Guy
Kraftkurve King
Wider tires = more grip.
Road cars typically have a staggered setup, where the rear tires are wider than the fronts. This gives the rear more grip than the front, and sets the car to understeer at the limit as opposed to oversteer, which is supposed to be easier/safer for regular drivers to deal with. A square setup is where the front and rear tires have the same width for more neutral or balanced grip limits.
The new GT3 Cup car runs 12" x 18" in the front and 13" x 18" in the rear, an 8% difference in width, compared to the road car 225mm front & 315mm rear, a 29% difference, which is further magnified by the staggered wheel size (20" front and 21" rear).
I know TPC Racing has successfully campaigned 911's with a wider front than rear in the past.
Road cars typically have a staggered setup, where the rear tires are wider than the fronts. This gives the rear more grip than the front, and sets the car to understeer at the limit as opposed to oversteer, which is supposed to be easier/safer for regular drivers to deal with. A square setup is where the front and rear tires have the same width for more neutral or balanced grip limits.
The new GT3 Cup car runs 12" x 18" in the front and 13" x 18" in the rear, an 8% difference in width, compared to the road car 225mm front & 315mm rear, a 29% difference, which is further magnified by the staggered wheel size (20" front and 21" rear).
I know TPC Racing has successfully campaigned 911's with a wider front than rear in the past.
Sunny
Premium
Typo? Don't think any GT3/RS had that slim front tires. On 996 it was 235 and on 991 RS, it was 265. Looking at 992 RS prototypes, wouldn't be surprised if it was even fatter.
Bridster
Oversteer Expert
Wow, wow, wow, easy there. There is a few things to unpack.
Wider tires do mean more grip, but that's not the whole story. If you put on tires twice as wide they wouldn't give you double the grip. The reason wider tires do give you more grip is not because there is more rubber contacting the surface, but because with larger area you are decreasing the force per area - and that increases the friction coefficient of the tire. This behavior is described by Tire Load Sensitivity. If tires were solid and not made of rubber, then making them wider would have no effect on grip.
Road cars having "staggered setup" has nothing to do with understeer or oversteer. Cars size the tires depending on many factors, the main one probably being weight distribution. Porsches have something like 35/65 weight distribution and the majority of mid engined cars will be somewhere between 40/60 and 45/55. So it makes sense to run wider tires at the back to get equal grip front and rear, and in addition on a RWD car you want the rear tires to be wider because they need to be able to put the power down. This is also why it's so annoying to hear that 50/50 is the "perfect" weight distribution. It's not really. The cornering balance is achieved by differing tire sizes and having a lot more weight in the back - and therefore wider tires in the back - means more grip for acceleration AND more grip for braking too (since you make the rear tires do more work). That's one of the reasons the GT2RS is both the fastest accelerating RWD car at the moment (to 100km/h), as well as the one with the shortest braking distance.
Understeer and oversteer have very little to do with weight distribution in general. If you put on oversized or undersized tires on either axle, that would lead to under/oversteer because one of the axles would have more grip than the other, but then that would just be the matter of adjusting the suspension stiffness or the anti-roll bar to cure that. You would have less grip overall, but you would have neutral balance. Understeer and oversteer are pretty much purely a matter of setup. Journos going around and talking about how the natural balance of a whatever-engined car is this or that, have no clue what they are talking about basically.
Porsche Guy
Kraftkurve King
I don't think you actually read my post.
I didn't say that tire width is proportional to grip.
A staggered setup definitely favors understeer. Is it the sole determining factor? No.
The GT3 cup runs a slightly staggered setup with 8% wider rubber in the rear vs the road-going GT3's 28% wider rear rubber. How different is the weight distribution between Cup and road-car?
the question was why does 911 have wider tires than other mid-engine cars? it was answered, it also happens to give the 911 an advantage in some aspects. so the engine is not "in the wrong place", just in a different place, that some prefer it not be for other reasons.
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Porsche
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, is a German automobile manufacturer
specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs, and sedans,
headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Owned by
Volkswagen AG, it was founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche.
In its early days, Porsche was contracted by the German government
to create a vehicle for the masses, which later became the Volkswagen
Beetle. In the late 1940s, Ferdinand's son Ferry Porsche began
building his car, which would result in the Porsche 356.
Official website: Porsche
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