The Porsche 911 range is currently in the process of receiving a mid-life facelift, not a small task when there are so many different versions to get through. It’s not just the road cars that are getting the treatment, either: Porsche’s just given a nip-and-tuck to two of the factory racing versions of its evergreen sports car.
First up comes the 911 Cup, formerly known as the GT3 Cup. This is the one you’ll sometimes see racing in a one-make pack if you tune into Sky Sports F1 on a Grand Prix Sunday morning, as it’s the star of the F1-supporting Carrera Supercup as well as a huge range of national and regional series.
Porsche 911 Cup (992.2) – rear
As well as getting a subtle styling tweak to reflect the roadgoing GT3’s facelift, the Cup racer gets a 10bhp bump from its 4.0-litre nat-asp flat-six, taking power to 513bhp. It also brings a host of aerodynamic tweaks aimed at improving airflow and downforce, plus uprated brakes, a beefed-up clutch and a simplified cockpit layout.
As it’s a customer car, you can actually go out and buy yourself one of these, providing you can stump up €269,000 (around £233,000), plus whatever VAT your country of residence levies on spec-series Porsche racing cars.
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) – front
Find enough success in the 911 Cup, and you might find yourself getting a seat in the altogether more serious 911 GT3 R, which also gets a refresh ahead of the 2026 season. This one’s built to the wildly popular GT3 regulations, allowing it to race in numerous series including the World Endurance Championship and its 24 Hours of Le Mans flagship event, where it’s won its class in the last two runnings.
Like the Cup, it gets a suite of aero tweaks plus changes to the ABS, power steering and ceramic wheel bearings. A series of previously optional extras, mostly various sensors, are now standard. Largely unchanged is the 4.2-litre racing version of the roadgoing GT3’s flat-six, which, depending on the balance of performance of the series it’s running in, can make up to 557bhp.
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) – rear
And if you’re a team running the pre-facelift car and worried that the new one’s going to leave you in its dust, there is a workaround: Porsche will offer around 60 upgrade kits for the old car to bring it up to the spec of the new one, at €41,500 (around £36,000) plus VAT. Is it just us, or in the mega-expensive world of motorsport, does that actually feel like quite good value?
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