TOYS

The 911 GT3:

from racing car straight to series production mode

502 HP | 0-60 IN 3.2S | 197MPH TOP TRACK SPEED

In the new Porsche 911 GT3, the brand’s most powerful genes combine to create something even stronger. Motorsport legends Walter Röhrl and Jörg Bergmeister provide expert analysis of the state-of-the-art racer for the road.

The highlight reel in Walter Röhrl’s mind plays an over 20-year-old thriller. “We never would have thought that a series production car could lay down a sub-eight-minute lap on the Nordschleife,” the motorsport legend recalls. In 1999, the first Porsche 911 GT3 pulled it off. Not least because it was driven around the Nürburgring by the two-time rally world champion himself. After 20.6 kilometres, the clock stopped at 7:56.33 minutes. It was a sensation! For Jörg Bergmeister, a 23-year-old up-and-coming Porsche factory driver at the time, there were no doubts: the GT3 was his dream car.

Now Porsche has presented the seventh generation of the highperformance sports car and, together with Lars Kern, Bergmeister catapulted around the infamous Green Hell during the final development drives. The absolute best time from four almost equally fast laps on what is now a 20.8-kilometre test circuit was set by development driver Kern: an astonishing 6:59.927 minutes (911 GT3 (WLTP): Fuel consumption combined 13.0 – 12.9 l/100 km, CO2 emissions combined 294 – 293 g/km, 911 GT3 (NEFZ): Fuel consumption combined 13.3 – 12.4 l/100 km, CO2 emissions combined 304 – 283 g/km). Roughly a minute faster than the first one. “A world of difference,” says Röhrl.

The latest GT3 incorporates more racing technology than any of its predecessors. The layout of the double wishbone front axle, the refined aerodynamics with the swan-neck rear wing, and the striking diffuser are just a few of many examples. Bergmeister, now 45, knows the components well from the Porsche 911 RSR – the GT factory racing car that delivered Le Mans victories and championship titles for Porsche.

The most powerful series 911 with a naturally aspirated engine offers an astonishing level of everyday comfort for what is a razor-sharp driving machine. What else is there to say? The final word goes to the grand master of driving: “I am often asked which is my favourite 911,” says Röhrl. “It’s always the latest one – and the next one.”

CAN YOU OUT-EXERCISE A BAD DIET?

By Khadejah Khan

We all know that one person who says, “I eat what I want and then just work it off at the gym,” and then proceeds to stuff their face with pizza, tacos, and cheeseburgers. But is there any truth to out-exercising a crappy diet?

In short: NO. Working out like a monster is not going to counteract a bad diet, it’ll only make it harder for you to achieve your fitness goals. Different foods have good and bad side effects toward various parts of the body. Healthy foods contribute essential nutrients which impact our skin, sleeping patterns, and joints, for example. Dense foods that are rich in calories but low in healthy nutrients can make us feel groggy and bloated (think Popeye versus Garfield). So if you’re regularly eating junk foods like fries and doughnuts, heading to the gym for 45-60 minutes is not going to work off your Wendy’s 4 for $4 either. Instead, it gets stored as fat and disrupts your #gainz.

Perhaps the only people who can justify a bad diet are pro athletes. They require an enormous amount of caloric fuel because they burn off the intake with frequent exercise and high intensity workouts, aka energy output. For the average person, it’s a lot harder to work off your caloric intake, no matter how much we believe we live at the gym and breath exercise. Unless you’re training to be the new Michael Phelps or a linebacker at the next Superbowl, there’s no rationale for unlimited breadsticks at Olive Garden.

Having a bad diet and keeping your physique may have worked when you were in high school, but that’s not the case once you pass 25. Your metabolic rate, or how quickly you burn calories or fat, is at its highest in your teens and early 20s, even if you didn’t exercise regularly, meaning, eating fast food during your lunch block was fine and dandy whether or not you had track practice later. However, everyone’s metabolic rate is different and determined by genetics, and as we get older our metabolism slows. Such is life, unfortunately.

So what about that person we all know who believes they can have their cake and eat it, too? One: they might be lucky and have a high metabolic rate (try not to let that jealousy get to you). Two (and most likely): they’re not going to see the results they want. Having bottomless fries at Red Robin then working it off didn’t cancel out the fries; it just made it more difficult to lose. Therefore a regular diet high in bad fats and sugars will constantly get in the way of your gym goals. It’s unreasonable to quit an entire diet cold-turkey. But in small ways, the key is to make smart food choices that when stored are healthy for us and give us good nutrients, but will also be “easier” to work off.