Remember the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring Package that Porsche released a few months ago? Turns out, Porsche had reasons for releasing that version of the 911, and it had nothing to do with adding another iteration for the sake of having one. According to 911 boss August Achleitner, the 911 T was created in part as a response to the ridiculous second-hand price the Porsche 911 R is going for these days. It’s rare for an automaker like Porsche to bother itself with what's happening in the second-hand car market, but, apparently, the bigwigs at Stuttgart didn’t like how flippers have gone amok over the super rare 911 R by jacking up its price to seven figures. So, it responded with the 911 GT3 Touring Package, a more affordable version of the 911 R that’s cheaper and has no set production number.

You can argue that this is something exotic automakers should have done a long time ago to combat flippers who have little interest in the beyond making money out of it. But, the truth is, doing something like this usually doesn’t make sense from a business perspective. Costs run up, workers work more, and there’s a chance that the exclusive model loses its exclusivity.

Yet, despite those reasons, Porsche still went ahead and released the 911 GT3 Touring Package. August Achleitner explained the company’s reason for releasing the 911 GT3 T, telling Road & Track that if the car can help keep the prices a “little bit lower for the average customers of cars, it’s better.”

Achleitner added that Porsche was willing to sacrifice the happiness of its high-end customers who bought the 911 GT3 for their use because the company doesn’t like the fact that other people bought the car just to make money out of it.

So the company decided to release the 911 T with the purpose of having a lot of similarities to its 911 R counterpart. That said, the two cars aren’t identical either. The 911 R, for example, uses carbon fiber for its hood and fenders and has magnesium for its roof. The 911 T doesn’t have those specs, but it does have a new 4.0-liter flat-six engine that produces the exact 500-horsepower as the 911 R, but with an extra 500 more usable revs at its disposal.

Only time will tell if this strategy ends up being a good one for Porsche, but it is refreshing to see an exotic automaker that still has the sensibilities to listen to the cries of its frustrated fan base. Here’s to hoping that the arrival of the 911 GT3 Touring Package works out well for everyone involved.

References

Porsche 911

Read our full review on the 2018 Porsche 911 GT3 Touring Package

Read our full review on the 2018 Porsche 911 R.