Porsche's 911 GT3 Bergsport ditched the magnesium wheels on purpose
Porsche had a lighter wheel for this 911 GT3 and left it in the parts bin
The 911 GT3 Bergsport is a 100-car edition sold only in Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland, built by Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur around the roads outside those four importers' showrooms. It is based on the GT3 with Touring Package, it comes with a six-speed manual and nothing else, and almost every decision Porsche took on it adds mass rather than removing it.
One hundred cars, four Alpine countries, one gearbox
Porsche will build exactly 100 examples, and only customers in Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland can order one. Every car is a 992.2 GT3 with Touring Package finished in Valleygreenmetallic, a Paint to Sample Plus colour created for this edition, a deep green carrying gold metallic particles that catch the light. The 4.0-litre naturally aspirated flat-six making 502 hp is untouched, and the six-speed manual is the only transmission offered. Porsche has been running these market editions steadily, and Britain got the Earls Court 51 earlier this year. No price has been published.
Forged aluminium wheels replace the Lightweight Package's magnesium ones
This is the choice that gives the car away. The Lightweight Package normally arrives with forged magnesium centre-lock wheels, the lightest rims Porsche will sell on a GT3, and on the Bergsport it does not. Forged aluminium is fitted instead, and Porsche states the reason without dressing it up: the aluminium wheels are more durable, and hold up better against the demanding conditions of Alpine passes. A company that has spent two decades selling grams has built a limited edition around heavier wheels.
The 90-litre tank holds roughly 67 kg of petrol
The wheels are not the only weight the Bergsport puts back. Porsche specified the 90-litre fuel tank, the largest it offers in a 911, which carries around 67 kg of petrol when brimmed and exists so an owner can cross a mountain range without planning the day around fuel stations. There is a front axle lift system for steep ramps and broken surfaces, and a rear seat system, fitted alongside the folding carbon-fibre bucket seats that come with the Lightweight Package. None of that is how a lightweight special usually reads.
The ducktail never arrived, and the engine grille still says GT3 Touring
The spoiler everyone expected is not there. Ahead of the reveal the Bergsport was widely tipped to wear a ducktail rear lid, and the production car keeps the GT3 Touring's retractable rear spoiler and its Touring badge above the engine. What marks it out instead is a circular emblem on the engine cover showing four Alpine summits for the four countries with a serpentine road running past them, a GT3 Bergsport badge on the B-pillar, tinted HD-Matrix LED headlights, and a chequered flag motif on the front lid that Porsche says nods to the 908 Bergspyder.
Jörg Bergmeister takes it up Arosa's 76 corners on 3 September
The public debut is the Arosa ClassicCar hill climb in Switzerland on 3 September, with Porsche brand ambassador Jörg Bergmeister driving the car up a 7.3-kilometre course that climbs 422 metres through 76 corners. It is the right venue for a car named after Bergrennen, the hill climb racing Porsche dominated in the 1960s with machines built on the opposite principle: the 909 Bergspyder weighed 384 kg. A special issue of Curves Magazine, limited to 1,000 copies, goes with the launch.
AutoNext Take
Strip the Alpine poetry out of the press release and the Bergsport is Porsche's GT department admitting something it has avoided saying for fifteen years: on a real mountain road, the lightest specification is not the best one. Magnesium wheels are wonderful until a broken edge on the Stelvio finds one at the end of a long day. A small tank is irrelevant on a circuit and a genuine nuisance on a pass with no pump for 60 km. Porsche fixed both, and it fixed them by adding weight to a car sold under the Lightweight Package.
The test of whether this is an idea or a paint code is what happens next. If the aluminium wheels and the 90-litre tank stay locked inside 100 cars in four countries, the Bergsport was an emblem, a badge and a very good colour. If Porsche puts durable wheels on the ordinary GT3 Touring's options list, it will have changed what a fast 911 is allowed to be. Watch the configurator, not the hill climb.
