The Porsche 911 GT3 was introduced in 1999 as a high performance version of the first water-cooled version of the Porsche 911, the 996, to continue the quarter-century tradition of low-weight RS (short for "Rennsport" in German) models that ended with the 993 RS.
The GT3, named after the FIA GT class it was intended for, did not use the rather simple engine of the regular production versions of the 996, but a naturally-aspirated version of the turbocharged Porsche 962 and Porsche 911 GT1 race cars.
Later, the turbo-charged Porsche 911 GT2 was added to the maker's lineup, but unlike its predecessor 993 GT2, did not fit into GT racing regulations. The racing versions of the GT3 have won several major 24h races outright, and mainly dominated their class at Le Mans. The 911 GT3 competes with the BMW M3 GTR and the Ferrari F430 GT2.
The new 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS has unofficially lapped Nurburgring Nordschleife in 7min 33sec. That's still significantly slower than the current leaders, which include the Corvette ZR1 (7m26.4s), Gumpert Apollo (7m11.57s), Radical SR8LM (6m48s) and the highly disputed Nissan GT-R (7m27.56s), however, compared to the regular 911 GT3 it is a full seven seconds quicker.
The test driver was not named, however, track conditions were reported as having "some light traffic" and the timer telemetry showed a theoretical best lap of 7m 30s.
It was a year ago Porsche disputed Nissan's claims of achieving 7m 29s with the newly launched Nissan GT-R which was 20 kilos heavier than the 911 Turbo. Porsche officials were baffled as they could only achieve 7m 54s with a GT-R they purchased from the US. Porsche suspected the GT-R had been modified or used other tires. Nissan fired back by releasing photos of the tires used as well as in-car video footage with timer display. Since then Nissan has gone on to better the GT-R's time further with 7m 26.7s.
Global Motorsport Group (GMG) a famous Euro tuner which based on California has came out their new tuning for the 2008 Porsche GT3. These GMG WC products have been specially developed from their experience contesting the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championships and beyond (see press release below for specs). There is a real carbon fiber roof conversion included in this package. There's no faux vinyl film overlay here, this is the real deal. Besides that, a customize 997 face lifted tail ligeht lenses had fitted to the GT3 as well.