2024 Porsche 911 GT3 Manthey

There is no shortage of Porsche 911s for you to spend your high-performance dollars on. There are even multiple GT3s to choose from these days. And if you want Porsche to make it even better for you, they’ll do that too, with the help of Manthey Racing!

In recent years, Porsche has made a total blur of the line between street car and race car with the latest 911 GT3. But if you’re lucky enough to own a current 992 GT3 and find yourself wanting to make it even more capable on the track, Porsche’s partnership with Manthey Racing can make that happen.

If you’re not familiar, Manthey Racing is a German motorsports company that’s been turning 911s into race winners since the 1990s; so much so, that Porsche bought a majority stake in the company 10 years ago and now runs its GT race program with help from Manthey.

The Manthey Performance Kit is essentially an aero package that can be installed at specially certified Porsche dealers. There are some structural enhancements as well, mostly a precautionary measure to make sure everything holds up to all of the extra downforce pressure created by that huge adjustable rear wing, plus upgraded steel brake lines. Other enhancements include extended front splitter with side flaps, additional underbody airflow management, rear diffuser with lengthened fins, and even carbon fiber aero discs attached to the rear wheels.

Put it all together, and Porsche has basically bridged the gap between a standard GT3 and the GT3 RS which we had here at Roebling Road Raceway last year. And much like that RS, this GT3 looks like a race car around those nine turns, and you certainly feel like a race car driver behind the wheel as it takes whatever skill you bring to the table and multiplies it. It was so fast and so capable; flawlessly flat and smooth through corners, with spectacular brakes that quickly turned braking zones into areas to pick up time, not just scrub speed. All the while, the GT3’s PDK transmission delivered shifts as fast and seamlessly as always.

Perhaps the true engineering feat of it all, is that a car this capable can be an absolute easy to drive pussycat on the street. So, don’t think of it as a great occasional track day car, but as a legit race car you can take through the Starbucks drive-thru every day.

Now, where the GT3 RS’s interior is incredibly business-like, our test 911 GT3 appeared more like any other 911, which was fine by us. Just the standard Race-Tex setup with GT silver stitching and some seatbelts in Racing Yellow to match the exterior and keep us firmly placed in the full bucket seats.

With such a priority on downforce, drag racing was not even a consideration with the Manthey kit, yet we still ripped up the quarter-mile in 11.0 seconds flat at 128 mph getting to 60 in just 2.8 seconds, a tenth quicker than we got in the GT3 RS last year.

And it’s at this point we’ll pause to once again declare our love for this naturally-aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six engine. Its heavenly howl is a sound we’ll never grow tired of hearing, and feeling it push us forward, while pushing the tach to 9,000 RPM to create its 502 horsepower and 346 lb-ft of torque, is a sensation found nowhere else in the automotive world.

The Manthey Performance Kit costs $57,300 plus installation, and it can be installed on any current 992-generation GT3 whether you’re buying it new or already own it. If you are buying new, a 2024 GT3 will cost you at least $185,850, so you’ll be well past $200,000 by the time it’s all said and done.

The concept of a race car for the street is nothing new, but the Manthey Performance Kit will do more than just turn your Porsche 911 GT3 into a race car for the street. It’ll make it a really great race car for the street. No manufacturer does this as well as Porsche.