The Nürburgring’s weather might be in the middle of a typical high-summer cool patch, but the factory teams of both Porsche and BMW were doing their best to warm it up yesterday.
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For an hour before the Skylimits/Getspeed trackday, and two hours after it, the Nordschleife was exclusively hired for just TWO cars: The 2016 BMW M6 GT3 and the Porsche 911 (991) GT3R.
Here are my pictures and video.
With such low clouds and dark conditions, the pressure was really on the test drivers from both sides of the T13 pitlane.
Who wants to be the guy who crashed the first-ever example of an all-new GT3-class car? But it was the Porsche that definitely looked more comfortable in the low temperatures and poor grip levels.
Take a look for yourself below:
As pointed out by many, my mutterings of “OMG, dat wastegate!” are, in fact, totally inaccurate. As a man who turbocharged his own MX5 and chose not to run an external wastegate (I used the integral one on the little Chinese turbo) I should know what a wastegate is. And the fact I deliberately did not fit a blow-off valve, should really mean I know that bird-like sound.
An expert would tell you that this chirruping noise is compressor stall, as the closed throttle traps the boost pressure against the compressor blades and stalls the system.
But I’d prefer to believe it’s the mythical ‘boost pigeon’, who is the small bird-shaped god of boost who lives in high-power turbo cars and gives them the power to overtake their naturally aspirated foes.
Either way, you have to admit, the sound from that side-exit, front-wing-mounted exhaust on the BMW is pretty aggressive.
Both cars are expected to make their racing debuts soon, though the BMW is officially scheduled not to race until 2016…
