Been a while since I had second thoughts on selling a car. Looking around on forums, it’s quite clear that this green car had touched more than a few chords. It went in today for an inspection at JZM and it passed with flying colours which perversely, made me more upset. Knowing the car was immaculate and, I quote, “The cleanest RS I’ve ever seen”, made me want to just keep it forever.

I had cherished and worshipped the car with much wax and tears. In the 5000 miles I did over the past 6 months, it made me smile at every mile.

It was also the most dramatic 911 I’ve owned as it garnered enough attention from the public to make it a minor celebrity. I will be back in a 911 GT3 before long, they are too good to be away from for too long.

So, no more spine tingling at 7500 RPM. No more expertly crafted, precision engineered cornering characteristics. No more drifting on bends at 45 degree angles, carefully balanced by throttle and steering input so delicate and flexible that each 500rpm on the rev range provides another +/- degree of attack. No more raucous sport button induced reverb off low, brick walls as you pass them. And finally, no more staring at perhaps the finest green ever placed on a car after applying a thick layer of expensive wax.

Right, enough tears, what’s next?

Sport chrono
Centre console painted body colour
Harnesses
Alcon JZM discs
RS29 pads
Uprated brake fluids

The car has had no expense spared in my care and is set up already by Fearnsport for geometry. It was also inspected by them prior to my purchase and Matt said it was almost showroom condition.

What’s wrong with it? Not much really. It needs a touch up where there are a couple of small stone chips on the bonnet and it also needs a new set of tyres (still on original set). I would replace them myself, but a new prospective owner may have a preference. Other than that, it wants for nothing.

I’ve just had a stamp from Porsche East London for its recent service and I’ve also just taken out the all important Porsche International Warranty together with the roadside assist module. My recent bill there was almost £3,000.

I’ve also just purchased a new front splitter so the car looks fantastic.

Looking for £77k.

I hope Nathan doesn’t mind me using his images.

I’ve decided to sell the RS and it’s time for something that isn’t 911 shaped. I’m on my 5th GT3 and I’m getting bored of hearing myself wax lyrical about them. It really isn’t very becoming of me to continually bleet about a car so obviously brilliant. It’s sickening, really it is. It’s also utterly mental that I want to sell something that is so obviously brilliant too. It’s superb to look at, utterly intoxicating to drive, aurally stimulating and people love to watch, listen and ride in it. So why on earth am I thinking of selling it? Because, my non-existent, imaginary, binary friends, the grass is always greener.

What were my choices then? In no order of preference:

Ferrari 599
Ok, let’s just get this one out of the way. I like my V12 Ferraris, except I can never seem to afford them until they are at the end of their cycle run. Sub £100k is where I’m at, so Mr. Fiorano, another day perhaps.

Audi R8
Now that prices are down to sensible levels, there’s a lot to like about Audi’s offering. There’s also a sprinkling of choice, from V8 to V10 to the Spyder. Each model has its merits and they all make for a compelling argument. There’s real world practicality to consider, then there’s the every day accessible supercar performance coupled with a fantastic soundtrack. Aesthetically, it’s a bit of a disappointment in certain companies.

Porsche (insert a billion acronyms here)
The whole reason I have itchy feet is because I want to try something different. So that rules out a GT2, which I’ve been eyeing up for a while. I haven’t been as excited about a car in a long time as I have about the GT2RS. By all accounts it’s a monster and one of the fastest production cars ever. Georg Kacher, awesome Car journalist, recounts:
“I’m not sure that there exist enough Walter Rohrls to fully realise the true portential of the ultimate rear-wheel drive 911. Porsche can guarantee that the GT2RS has every piece of technology to humble any Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bugatti. Except, perhaps, an adequately talented driver.”
Colour me shallow, but that’s just a red rag to me. I fancy myself.
As for the GT3RS, I’m still a bit pissed with Porsche’s attitude to the whole sales process. I sent another email to Porsche GB asking them why, when I had been denied a car, were there well over a dozen cars currently for sale at speculators. I got no reply. Still, I shouldn’t cut my nose off to spite my face and it takes a fool to deny the GT3RS the merit it deserves – it truly is a spectacular car, I will have one next year I suspect when the prices settle down. At the moment, it’s not £40k better than my current car.

Which leaves me with only one other option. A phone call was made earlier today. :)

In honour of this tradition, the 997 Turbo Convertible and I did check each other out in the reflection a couple of weeks back, when the weather was glorious, that one weekend where we had 32 deg sunshine all day. Yeah fine, shoot me, but it was a perfect day for many reasons and glancing at that oversized Gap shop window, I couldn’t help but feel I was blessed with the luck of the gods for that afternoon. And I felt that the bond was complete.

There I was, sat in that car, good looking woman sat in my side, the shopping bags of excess in the back seats, hood down and the world at my feet. Suddenly, I understood the joys of owning this car. Granted, that kind of day comes once a year, if that, and you need to weigh up the incredible sense of wellbeing generated on that one summers day, versus the remaining 364 days of depressing rain in the UK. It has, after all, been a cloudy summer ever since that day and I’ve not seen a clear sky since.

Of course, that’s a harsh assessment, but it does imply some truths. Life’s all about balance and that sliding scale is adjusted according to the kind of person you are. For me, that one particular day, cruising around in central London, posing in a car pretending to be 2011 summer-wear catwalk model, judging by the sheer number of photographs taken of the car, was so obscenely awesome that the compromise was almost worth having to drive the car with the hood up for the rest of the year.

And it is a car about excesses and perfectly suited to the life of someone who spends a lot of time in central london. The black wheels really set off the car and it gains both admiration and derision in equal measure, probably for the same reason. It demonstrates a type of lifestyle which even I succumbed to, even if it was out of my own reach in reality.

The lazy tiptronic gearbox works terribly when in pursuit of raw thrills, but for cruising around town, soaking up the sun, it was merely sufficient as it gently shifts from one long ratio to the next, allowing you instead to bask in your own glory.

Make no mistake though. Even though the tiptronic makes brisk progress difficult (the gears were way too long for a turbo charged car with such a specific power band), once you did get those turbos spooling, it really was a very quick car and I suspect there’s no more effective a way of giving yourself a scalp massage. I remembered later on when I drove my RS again I was almost slightly underwhelmed by it’s power delivery. Almost.

Frankly, the only reasons for disliking this car can be very quickly made better by adjusting the options list. Dump that awful gearbox in favour of PDK, get a better, thick rimmed steering wheel and maybe even add the letter ‘S’ to the boot.

I was actually quite upset to see it go, even if i was comforted by the approach of imminent rain. Since then the weather hasn’t been anything like it was for that week I had the car and that’s consolation in itself, as I’d have been truly depressed if it was.

Would I swap my RS for one? I’d almost certainly consider it. Given how few track days I’ve done this year, the RS is almost wasted on the driveway. Lately I’ve been needing to drive to work in the City a lot and in the RS that’s been an exercise in self control and tolerance. Only today I attracted the unwanted attention of City police again, driving erratically, swapping lanes often and doing, wait for it, FORTY miles per hour. I’m just a giant animated bill board on wheels selling crack cocaine to small children. The Turbo in contrast was a joy with it’s compliant suspension, four seats, auto box, sat nav and Bose sound system. I will stress though, this car needs a companion in the passenger seat, perhaps even in the drivers seat. Just make sure he/she is good looking!

It’s a fabulous car and if you can afford such a luxury as a second toy, nothing really ticks as many boxes. It massages your ego, tickles the senses and fools you into a false sense of delusional grandeur. I know, I’ve changed my tune somewhat. But I guess that’s what a few days of awesome weather does. It puts this car totally into perspective. It’s not a pure drivers car in the manner I’ve come to judge. A quick drive in the RS yesterday up and down the road had me reversing back into my garage with my heart beating and my legs shaking – no joke. But the Turbo offers itself as a driving pleasure that can only be truly savoured at the right time and the right place. Reach that zenith and you’ll have your awakening.

Excuse me whilst I engage in the pastime enjoyed by all car enthusiasts the world over, I’m just going to pour over the classifieds.

Have always been curious on the merits of the 911 Turbo. Having driven a GT2 a few years back, I remember the ferocious power delivery of that scarcely manacled beast. However, time has moved on since then and our perceptions and benchmarks have shifted somewhat.

Glenn has just taken delivery of a Gen 2 Turbo S Convertible. In an almost unbelievably coincidental display of fate, my courtesy car has ended up looking identical to Glenn’s Gen 2 in all but detail. His car is positively savage and it’s one of the few 911’s you can hear before you can see it, with the most unholy induction noise you’ve ever heard. Coupled with a PDK gearbox, his car should be criminalised. To think that you cannot buy alcohol in an unlicensed place, but you are able to walk into a showroom and buy this missile is surely a parody sketch on the state of modern day society?

Regardless, “Speed is relative” I remind myself as I set into my ’standard’ Turbo. It’s a Gen 1, which means it’s a 3.6, rather than a Gen 2 3.8. It’s also not an S, which gives leaves it with 40BHP less at 480BHP. It’s still a powerhouse of an engine with each overtake acting out as giant lunges through traffic, chomping huge chunks of road and cars, sucking up every object into its airbox, tied down or not. It becomes comedic and you have to shift your sense of what’s possible when you overtake cars as everything is SOOO easy.

Select gear, nail throttle, wait for the lag, count to one, two…whhooOOOOSHH and you’ve got warping stars, Millenium Falcon style. With the hood down, tears start to stream as you realise you way past triple figures and you’re desperately trying to readjust your sunglasses that seem to have made their way around to the back of your head. As you haul hard on the brakes (because you really had no idea just how fast you were approaching that car!), you repeat the process again. Over and over and over.

The brakes work fantastic, if a little out of sorts with the chassis. I’m not certain if this was isolated to this particular car, of if I’ve been warped by the rigidity and hardness of a GT3, but the 911 Turbo can’t seem to escape a somewhat lofty personality under hard braking, with the nose dramatically pointing downwards under heavy braking. Also under hard throttle, the car does the opposite with your headlights pointing to the birds in the sky.

But the one thing that kills the car is also the one thing that I cannot forgive nor ignore; the gearbox. I’ve never driven a tiptronic before, why anybody would spec such a magnificent car with such a travesty in technology is an enigma. If you see any Porsche’s with tiptronic gearboxes, I’m telling you right now, the owners can’t drive for toffee. It’s simply a glorified automatic.

Shifting it to manual mode, you are granted with two steering wheel buttons. Up and down. When it carries out those actions, however, is really down to how the gearbox is feeling at the time. Shifts actioned by the button rarely get carried out exactly when you want them, especially if coupled by an urgen, nailed throttle. This delay in shifting gears often has you bumping on the rev limiter, forcing you to recalibrate as you end up having to shift 2 seconds before you really need to. Electric, eh?

We live in a colourful world filled with subjectivity. That’s why I can comfortably say I could never buy a Turbo. It has none of the electricity of my GT3 that allows me to enjoy and cherish each hurried gear shift and subsequent pinning of the throttle, giving out that scream, filling my ears with ecstasy and meaning. The Turbo also doesn’t have the immediacy that you come to expect from a N/A car. Accelerating in the Turbo almost requires forethought and planning as you end up acting out all movements 2-3 seconds before you need to, just to get around the turbo lag. That is huge fun at times, but rather dangerous at others, as you occasionally try to take advantage of small, immediate gaps in traffic.

And I tell you what, nobody let’s you out of traffic in a white turbo cab! Big drive this weekend, I hope the weather’s good so I can respond with an informed decision.

Four days at the Nurburgring, two of which would be on bikes, two days at Spa, an incredible cross country drive demonstrating some of the most verdant, beautiful coniferous green lands between Germany and Belgium and a solid helping of 30 deg heat throughout is surely a recipe for any petrol head.

Include the tools of surgery, them being two green GT3 RS’s and two Nissan GTR’s, and we’re either going to get into a massive fight or gain divine insight into the makings of automotive heaven.

The bravado had started months before, of course. Depending on which car you owned, the GTR was either an extraordinarily advanced automotive equivalent of HAL, leaving very little for the driver to do, or a revolutionary step in motoring, raising the bars of expectation. Similarly, the GT3 was either a prehistoric remnant of a romantic ideal no longer suitable for today’s audience, or it was a precision, scalpel like device that rewarded it’s drivers as much as it demanded from them. Either way, hearts would be broken, egos bruised and lap times championed.

It still surprises me just how much attention the green RS gets both on the road and in the paddocks. Put two of these cars together and the effect is amplified further. On motorways, other enthusiasts jostle, sometimes dangerously, as they undertake, overtake and pull over, with cameras in hand, just to be part of the convoy. The two GTR’s equally attractive, doing their bit for the decepticons, resplendent in their high tech paint work echoing shadows of Transformers-like aggression.

The three evening sessions Thursday to Saturday at the Nurburgring are to be the most sane of the whole week. As the weather showed signs of glory, every car club in northern Europe descended upon the place creating both a Mecca for car fans, but also frustration for those wanting to do some laps. Most people choose to use the ring carpark for posing, with many others having to queue for up to an hour just to get into the car park. Saturday we couldn’t even get on to the track as some banzai driver binned his car on his first out lap, causing the circuit to close for the whole day.

That’s the risk out there. I must have counted at least 15 trashed cars in 4 days and countless ambulances ferrying drivers to the nearest hospital. Its both a problem and, perversely, part of the attraction as adrenaline addicts flock to do the (£15!!) laps, oblivious to the threat of death. With tyres squealing at 165MPH, there simply is no time to contemplate mortality.

Sunday, being the only true all-day tourist day, open from 8am until 7pm, was a true comedy day. To think that our actions were completely legal must have been a sick joke upon the Germans. As a group of four, we bullied our way across the ring as we raced, raved and raped the german track and its inhabitants. Back into the ring car park, I removed my sweat drenched helmet and felt with guilty pleasure the buzz of having enjoyed yet another eight minutes of knife edge recreation unavailable anywhere else in the world.

So which car is the ring daddy? No doubt about it, the GTR is simply unbeatable. It quite literally has been built with a single purpose in mind, to dominate the ring and it does with aplomb. The GT3’s are out powered, out handled and out techno’d by a car fit for the 21st century. Not only does it have enough power to rotate the ring around the car itself, but its clever 4WD system makes the deploying of that power so damn efficient, it does not waste a single BHP in transition. The ring has many uphill sections which makes mince meat out of the normally aspirated GT3’s, without the torque, they just cannot compete.

Still, there’s no doubt that the Nissans are one track wonders. With soaring transmission and engine oil temps, the cars are unable to do more than one lap effectively. Add to that a 4 lap fuel tank, melting tyres and overheating brakes and the allure starts to diminish.

If lap times are your ultimate goal, then the GTR is unbeatable, but there are huge compromises as mentioned. The RS’s in contrast are bulletproof in comparison. Respectively, the Porsches are back-to-basics cars with little technology aside from chassis and handling expertise.

Incidentally, we did two laps of the ring on our mountain bikes. If you have a cycling interest then you MUST attempt this opportunity. We did the bike ride during an endurance race at the ring. It really was a spectacular, challenging and unique ride that had you following the 24km circuit around the outside.

Spa was a totally different story and all were amazed at the stark differences in car performance between the Nissans and the Porsches. To put it bluntly, the GT3’s were right at home as the cars were surgically woven from one bend to another in the fast, rapid switchbacks offered at Spa. The 1800kg weight on the GTRs could offer no comfort to any amount of technology as the GT3’s danced from one section to the next, deftly balancing braking, power and chassis dynamics.

Finished off a wonderful day at Spa by destroying a set of rears with some synchronised drifting with Richard Meaden. He was at Spa with a Porsche GB Gen 2 GT3 press car, Dickie can peddle and made for many awesome laps. When my fuel trip computer showed “– miles” in range, I then stayed out for another 5 laps, thats how much I was enjoying myself at risk of coasting the starved engine to a standstill. Got some nice drift footage which I’ll put up as soon as I get the DVD.
Edit: here it is

But the most memorable snapshot I brought back with me is an insanely beautiful drive across Europe as we took a scenic route between Germany and Belgium. Suddenly, lap times don’t matter and all we’re interested in is the noise of each others’ downshifts and throttle blips, no matter the car of choice. As we briskly accelerate between narrow tree lined roads, the sound of our exhausts reverb off the low walls bouncing back into our open windows hand in hand with the glorious sunshine of middle Europe.

It really is a defining experience of what makes the perfect motoring moment. The unnecessary heel and toeing, the intentional aggressive throttle between 3k-4k rpm, forcing the butterfly valves on the exhaust silencers to open and close at will and the physical leaning into each and every bend making the travel across this time locked land a magical experience as we chased the sun into the west.

I am naturally biased but with £100k in the bank, would I choose a GT3 again, or buy a GTR and put £40k away? Let me just say I have no regrets.

Edit: First video posted. Host car is Glenn’s, chasing mine.

It’s a given that at any time I have an organised event involving the car, I can almost always guarantee rain. Let’s not forget that this was my second scheduled visit as the first one was canceled due to snow. Regardless, I’ll not let the process of precipitation ruin a drive in one of 2010’s most anticipated cars, the new GT3 RS Gen 2.

The Experience Centre is a fantastic place, it’s a very cosy, intimate environment housing very expensive cars such as the LMP Spyder, Carrera GTs and the odd Silk Cut car. Each visit has a different set of cars so it’s a dynamic, changing place with great hospitality and even better food.

My instructor and I enjoyed the fantastic roast lamb lunch and soon made our way through a rather simple briefing session which is catered quite clearly for people who’ve never driven a fast car before. The centre provides experience days for every new car purchase from Cayenne Diesels to 911 Turbos so the diversity of character and experience is vast. 15 mins later and I’m sitting inside the new (soaking wet) RS.

Initial impressions are of course, wonderful. I challenge any petrol head to maintain a consistent BPM just looking at it. It’s one of those few cars that looks fast just parked. With an exaggerated aerokit promoting downforce by way of its massive, beautifully shaped carbon fibre spoiler and its deep, sculpted front skirt, it’s a candid car that simply does not hide its intention.

Stepping inside and here some cynicism prevails. Going from a purely functional aesthetic on the outside, seeing some of the minor gimmicks made me chuckle. Such as the cord pull doors (which really save nothing but add consternation when closing the door) and the delete air-con function, no sat-nav and lightweight car battery are weight saving features that cannot beat a pure and simple diet!

Starting the engine and we’re introduced to a fantastic baritone note that is ever more prominent thanks to the perspex rear window. In note and pitch, it’s the same sound as my red Gen.2 GT3, but slightly louder, owing mostly to a titanium exhaust and perhaps a more liberal carbon airbox. It’s a delicious note and I couldn’t help but constantly prod the throttle when at idle throughout the whole day, you cannot tire of it. Notch one to the RS.2.

Snick the gear lever into first, release clutch and you also notice that the car has become civilised. There’s less clutch chatter, the gearbox is well behaved and the new carbon seats don’t creak. Naturally there’s a lot to be said for a brand new car, but this had 1500 miles on the clock versus my 3600, so it’s not a huge difference. Also, this was a pre-production model, the only RHD car on the road – or not, as it’s not legally allowed on the road.

The first thing you notice is the new front end – with that wider track, it offers a near elimination of understeer. Even in the wet, once the tyres were warm, it had tenacious grip, allowing that oh so familiar delicacy of balance between front and rear wheels. Oversteer is also on demand, typically in lift off fashion again, but the over zealous protection of the instructors refused me any deselection of traction or stability control. Irksome to say the least, but from the hard forced tail out moments that even went beyond the intervention of any technology, it’s quite clear that the car retains its progressive and benign nature on and off the limit.

That 3.8 is a magnificent engine. It’s a true spiritual sibling to the retired 3.6 lump, sharing all the characteristics of its high revving nature without any of the set backs of capacity increases. You can notice the difference between the Gen 1 and Gen 2 cars, that extra 200cc makes some small, but noticeable, difference with a more tractable low revs pick up, leading to slightly punchier mid-range making some of the high rev shifting typical with the previous generation GT3’s a little redundant. I found myself short shifting a few times, apart from that delightful howl, there really isn’t a valid reason to wring its neck all the time anymore.

There’s even better stability in the harsh left – right switchbacks too, with the balance of the car remaining unprovoked. That wider track providing excellent reassurance. There’s a wonderfully poetic moment when you get a bend right in the RS called the slingshot. Get your angle right, as you wind off your lock coming off a bend, hit the throttle at the right spot on the apex and the car is slung with supernatural efficiency onto the straight, reinforcing the slow in, fast out methodology of the GT3. It’s devastatingly rewarding and demonstrates the absurd levels of mechanical grip offered by an off-the-shelf car. I can only imagine how insane it could be with a track geometry set up.

After an hour and a half of abuse, the heat build up in the car brought on a sweat in me (no air con guys, c’mon!) so I decided I’d had enough. As I pulled it in, it was quite clear by the onlookers which car was getting the most attention. And who’d blame them? The RS really does look fantastic. Incredible given how the internet was so scathing of it when wraps were first taken off. Can’t help but feel I’m smitten.

Walking away, I stepped towards my car with those comparative thoughts of ifs and whys. The most comforting thought is that I’ve got £30k sitting in my bank – ultimately, is it £30k better? Probably not, no.

But then that’s a logical, pragmatic decision out of sync in a world born from passionate ideals. And who wants to be sensible when you have a Grey and Red in the garage?

That wasn’t so much of an issue, most of you will know that I have no fear of the rain and in fact can take great enjoyment out of it. Thankfully, the rain cleared and we were blessed with a dry circuit for the whole day. But there were high stakes at play here, with most of my fellow racers come track day regulars were here in force to prove superiority over one another.

Oulton really is a unique circuit and is a great shame that it’s so far away from my house (about 3 hour drive in clear traffic). It’s got incredible, sweeping undulations, with more blind crests and bends than any other place I can remember, bar the Nordschleife. Like the 911 RS, it’s a multi-faceted place with layers of difficulty peeled off the better you become. It can reward and punish with equal measure, with very little run off on some of the massively hard braking areas, requiring you to depend on your hardware more than any other circuit I know of.

However, I simply was not on the pace. Good friend Glenn McMennamin, who recently won his ProAm 2 championship title in the Porsche Carrera Cup, was always a great benchmark. Even though he was always faster overall, I was able to at least make comparative judgment on the differences. At Oulton, however, I don’t know what happened, but he was simply in a different league, as was Ken, who competes in the Lotus Elise Cup. All three of us in 997 RS’s, I just simply couldn’t maintain the pace. I’d also just picked the car up from Fearnsport after a track geometry and suspension set up, together with that, I exchanged my standard discs for a set of awesome Alcon discs and Pagid RS29 pads all around. The discs, although expensive at £1600 for the pair, provide absurd levels of longevity, with my last set on the white car having lasted about 15 trackdays. The pads are also standard GT3 fare. Finally, brake fluids are changed to high boiling point Castrol.

No matter, I couldn’t get my power down, brakes just weren’t biting and ABS was not cutting in. It doesn’t take a genius, but at the time, I couldn’t see the problem, even though I was staring it down the face!

This was a major dampener for me so I consoled myself by resorting to drifting everywhere. Even on and off the circuit as I went out to buy petrol from the local Shell garage. Unfortunately, this earnt me two different warnings, both outside the circuit and inside! “Compliments of Race Control sir, but please could you stop your tyres from squealing everywhere?” Game over for me…

The GT3 comes with the Michelin Pilot Sport Cups (the tyre on the right) from factory. I knew that my tyres were original from new, now over two years old. Although they had some tread good enough for the road, Cups really need to be fresh to get the most out of them on track. I still wasn’t convinced until I stole Glenn’s spare set from the tyre support crew and got them fitted to my car. These were the new Pirelli Corsa R’s. Not only are they a better compound, offering some high tech science behind its grip levels, but they were also oversized, comfortably fitting a 325 section over a regular 305.

Oh. My. God.

It quite literally felt like a different car from the very moment I turned my first corner on track. Sure footed, solid, extraordinarily grippy with an almost total elimination of understeer and oversteer. It felt so amazingly different that I immediately knocked at least 5 seconds off a lap with them, perhaps even more. It truly was a revelation and I’ve never before felt such a stark contrast in tyre performance and technology.

The curious thing is that I’ve actually had these tyres before on my white GT3, but I do not ever remember being so blown away by them.

There are, of course, caveats. They cost £1700.00. Got back up yet? Here are a few alternatives for your £1700.00 :)

Are they worth twice the price of a set of R888’s? Are they worth a 50% premium over a set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cups? Well, how much do you value those seconds? And to be frank, it’s not just about the laptimes either, they are soooo surefooted, they present a new dynamic to your car previously unexplored. For me, there simply is no question, they are a necessary investment for anybody looking to get good performance on track.

I’ve waxed lyrical about them, so I’ll just end on saying the day was finished on a high note.

Full album can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blowdog/sets/72157623613201356/

Highlight photos:

I’m both terrified and extremely excited by the prospect of driving this car. Naturally, I’m as keen as anybody to see how much difference there is between not only my current RS, but also the Gen2 GT3, and the new Gen2 RS. It’s all getting complicated. However, I’ve also placed a mind-block upon myself, I’m psychologically blocking all RS.2 related material from cranial considerations. If I can’t get one, then they don’t exist right? Why torture myself!?

Autocar have just launched what is probably the best review of the car I’ve seen. Not only is the guy well informed, but we’ve got some real nice video footage of the car. :

There are a multitude of other video and magazine reviews out now, Porsche have no doubt just done the Press launch. Keeping a media black out on these reviews is proving to be very very difficult and I just hope that I’ll get in it and, well, hope it’s not all that better.

To boot, weather is looking spectacular :(

Having suffered an irksome spell of snow and bad weather over the past month, I was happy with anything other than more snow. So when the weather report said ‘Heavy showers all day’ I was jubilant. I’m no alien to a bit of damp and as I hadn’t yet had time to change my discs and pads to more powerful items, what better way to consummate my relationship with my latest GT3?

So the soldiers with me, Henry in his beautifully pristine Cobalt Blue 997 GT3 and Guy in his powerhouse Dark Grey Metallic Nissan GTR. Warriors into battle, not a shred of fear amongst us. As a threesome we’ve together done a multitude of international events. We’ve probably travelled to Europe together dozens of times. We know the best viewing points at the Nurburgring (They’ve done the Scuderia Hanseat 3 times each) We’ve done trackdays together in the 100’s. And this has been going on for nigh on a decade. It’s this experience that we’ve collated, not only as trackday drivers, that allows us as a trio of guys to anticipate each others moves in such a safe and fun experience, regardless of environmental influence. I remember once in Papenburg, northernmost Germany, I had severe tyre damage on 2 wheels. I had to drive back from Germany to London at 30MPH through the night. It took me 9 hours to get home. Henry and Guy (with chest infection) did not leave my side and stuck with me the entire journey.

It’s this trust that allows the three of us to attack a trackday employing the ferocity we desire, with zero visibility, without risk to ourselves or others.

Enough with the pleasantries. How was the RS? [broken record mode]Absolutely bloody brilliant [/]. I have no other word to describe it. Rain or shine, this car is the king – undisputed. It really was non-stop rain all day and the GT3 is not a car to take liberties with. But I know this car, I’ve lived with it for years. I know its habits, its foibles and its idiosyncrasies. I know when to press it, I know when to submit.

The RS was so similar to the cooking vanilla GT3 that I’m really struggling to find some difference. I do notice an eagerness to rev – this is down to both the free-revving nature of the lightweight flywheel and also an effect of noise driven by the lack of rear window insulation (it’s made of lightweight plastic). I also noticed that when provoked into a drift (which was practically a permanent state yesterday), the car had a tendency to snap back into your line of sight with aggression. If not checked, this can lead to snappy fishtailing. I’m blaming this on a number of things; Firstly, the road conditions were totally chaotic – with the deep freeze over winter, this was followed by monsoon-like weather. What this did to the track surface is anyones guess. Secondly, I hadn’t had a geo done on the car yet, so I’m not sure what kind of camber this car has out of the factory. Rumour has it that camber settings from factory are often inconsistent and need adjusting, regardless of setting. Finally, and almost obviously, we have a wider track on the RS. This would possibly account for more grip on the rear, something you’d notice when coming out of an oversteer/drift moment.

Two other things I’ve noticed about this car. There’s the noise. It really is a stupendous, epic, shrieking banshee wail that entices at 3k rpm, exhilarates at 6k rpm and brutally rapes the senses at 8.2k rpm. Halving the thickness of the rear window and turning it into plastic has amplified the acoustic brilliance from inside the car and the pursuit of revs continues over and over again. The other thing to notice is the fantastic braking stability with that spoiler. It has none of the shifting, fidgety nature the GT3 has, allowing you to haul in under hard braking time and time again with sure-footedness. It’s reliable, dependable and controllable right up to the stopping inch, allowing you to focus on your approach line with clarity.

As it’s thinner brother proved before it, the RS is a delicate tool. The GTR a crushing carpet bomb of excellence as it devours anything in its path with utter abandon, the RS choosing instead to surgically remove its targets one by one, micro-managing inputs, gracefully crafting a line from one corner to the next and allowing itself to be adjusted minutely as it communicates the level of each and every wheel, one by one. It really is a revelation in driver communication and the low level seating of the fixed carbon seats places your arse right bang in the middle of the front and rear wheels. I have full dolby 7.1 DTS surround and I’m watching Avatar from the best seat in the house. It’s still no match for the GTR’s power on the straights, nor its incredible technology when juggling drive distribution through its four wheels. Coming out of a chicane onto a straight, the RS is no match for the GTR as it just opens its maw and chews through metal, tarmac, flesh and bone combined. The only hope you have is to fix up a number of consecutive bends – at this, the GTR struggles to contain it’s leviathan weight as gravity simply cannot be overcome – regardless of how many GB of processing power you throw at it. Still, I know which car I’d rather drive home in and the GTR is no doubt worthy of the many international accolades it has collected. Speaking of, has anyone questioned why Michael Bay hasn’t used one in Transformers? It’s perfect!

What was surprising was the wet weather ability of the RS – especially given it was on Michelin Pilot Sport Cups – horrible wet weather tyres. I suspect with the Pirelli Corsa R Systems, the car would have ripped a hole in the fabric of space time continuum. Although grip was severely restricted, the sheer level of communication allowed for healthy progress.

Henry in his GT3 provides the comedy. We’ve always enjoyed the odd black flag at Snetterton as we cannot resist the odd showboating. Today was a little different with the marshals as they appeared to be quite laid back and relaxed, considering there were only 20 cars on the track that’s no surprise.

I still maintain that there’s very little difference between a GT3 and its RS stablemate. It’s just as competent and equally effective in both rain and shine. I really am loving the colour scheme though, as loud and offensive as it may be, it’s quite suiting really. The ultimate test will be on a dry day after I’ve done my track geometry set up. Then I will be in a position to compare and that day can’t come soon enough.

My name is Cem. I am a GT3 addict.

As my predecessor elected to retain the car upon the inverse of his garage, I came to the car and discovered it buried underneath 2 inches of snow. Anyone who’s anyone knows GT3’s hate the cold for long periods. They are wild, feral beasts that choose to dance upon warm environments and work themselves into sweated frenzies. Anything more than a couple of weeks in sub-zero temperatures, the battery dies.

And my battery was dead.

First trip to Halfords and I bought another trickle charger (typical when you REALLY need your trickle charger, it’s actually 50 miles north because a friend borrowed it). This was plugged into the car and after 6 hours, ignition turned. Great, still nothing. Another trip to Halfords and I returned with a new battery and £120 lighter of pocket. Official Porsche one costs £300.00 – I hope I will not need it come warranty inspection time, later this month.

At last, I’m out, winding down doing 40 mph on the North Circular with pleasant satisfaction upon myself. Not much can do this, I find being in a familiar car environment is the great antithesis to stress.

This is my first 997 in RS guise. After periods of ridiculing RS buyers for having too much money to burn, I find myself open to revenge criticism.

Comparisons between the two inevitable of course, but I’ll not be qualified to do so until limits are explored on track. What I can say from the off is how incredible susceptible the RS is to tramlining, the wheels finding solace amongst the rutted valleys within the tarmac. Especially so of late, as the snow and low temperatures have made a mockery of UK asphalt. I inadvertently went over pot-holes tonight that were violent enough to shatter my spinal column.

Noise is also amplified. Not only is the rear window made of plastic, so less able to insulate noise, but also the single mass flywheel makes for a very noisy clutch. The acoustic effect is there to accentuate the ‘trackday’ aspect of the RS, but what I found it does is make the standard GT3 so much more hospitable in times when you aren’t on the racetrack.

But these are minor negatives to what is, of course, a staggeringly good car. Perfect heel and toeing – not because I’m a heel and toe master, but simply because the car’s been built to allow me, nay, entice me to do it. In the same way the steering wheel position, relative to your seating height and arm length is just spot on and even when you’re at a traffic light you can’t help but feel you’re on the grid. It feels like that scene in Avatar where the Na’vi connect with various animals via the nerve receptors at the end of their hair. It’s just a raw, primal, fleshy connection between man and car.

Tonight’s weather conditions were treacherous, given the amount of crap on the roads, that wasn’t surprising. But the GT3, being the delicate tool that it is, is subtley attuned to these variations in road and weather conditions. Care and attention is required to avoid any heart in mouth moments that require quick flicks of the wrist and brave maintenance of throttle and steering alike, lest you end up like the poor Z4 driver tonight who inexplicably buried himself into the very foundations of Hammersmith flyover at 50 MPH. I couldn’t find the front of that car for the life of me. It simply was no more.

2009 was an appalling year, both commercially and personally. After having been subjected to countless burglaries and various episodes of the law working against me, it’s nice to be back in something that is familiarly excellent.

It doesn’t make 2009 alright, but it does make it easier to swallow.

Spot the coffee cup.

How quaint

There were three cars there on view, photos below (Many thanks for the assumed permission for the photos from Layo, a user on Pistonheads). They really are quite abusive and shocking in their appearance with the GreyBlack and Red appearing the most suitable. White and red looking fantastic, but I’ve done White way too much lately with the last 997 for two and a half years.

That carbon spoiler is a work of art, though, and it is a fantastic combination of sculpted carbon and crafted alloy. All in all, the car is a sharpened tool that leaves no doubt in the mind as to its intentions and capabilities.

I managed to enjoy some good lunch with Geoff Turral, MD of Porsche Marketing GB, where we had a good head to head about Porsche’s current ordering and vetting processes which have caused me much deliberations of late. No promises were made but good headway was reached regarding my issues.

There’s no question, there has been a LOT of work gone into the recent RS with considerable effort to make the distinctions between GT3 and RS. However, there is also pressure on the driver now. If you turn up to a circuit with this, nothing else than ‘fastest’ should matter.

1) I place order for a GT3 gen2 at Porsche Reading
2) Car arrives, I’m deliriously happy – so much so, that I want to go for an RS gen2
3) I get an opportunity to take a friends order for a 1st place RS. Dealer in question agrees to the swap.
4) I decide to sell the GT3 in anticipation of the forthcoming RS. Porsche Reading make me an offer and I accept.
5) Porsche ask questions about this ‘RS’ I’ve organised. I say very little. Shortly after, a memo gets sent around to all dealers – “No order transfers are allowed”.
6) I lose my slot on the RS
7) I ask Porsche to sell me back my GT3 – they agree on the Friday. I ask for some short time to arrange finances
8) I call back Monday multiple times and email them to arrange transfer
9) Tuesday I receive email that explains car has been sold to somebody else.

This makes me sick to the teeth. I’m pretty much convinced Porsche Reading have had a hand in ensuring that this RS order got rescinded. Still, having just purchased my 3rd GT3 (only parted £90k with them a month before) I’d have expected a little common courtesty over the weekend by way of “Hi Cem, I’ve got somebody interested, do you definitely want the car back?”. Nothing.

Even now, I am sending emails to them asking for Dealer Principle names and I am being ignored.

Perhaps I should have done what any other budding opportunist would have done by way of making a massive premium on the car when I sold it. I could easily have put a £10k sticker on top.

Ugh…

That’s a saying we laughed about as kids when we were young. It came after a period of relative wealth during my early teens which had us in BMW’s, Jag’s and Merc’s for a few years. Leading out of the recession of the 90’s, I was in a 4 gear Corsa 1.2.

So it was with some frame of reference I was able to refer back to the Equidaen saying from 20 years ago. Having nurtured a GT3 for the past two years to a point where I experienced Zen every time out on the track, venturing out in the Focus RS was…….enlightening.

Forgive me. For many people, the Focus RS represents a real world aspiration wrapped up in a real world car. A sub £30k hot hatch that wraps up violent design, murderous ambition and uncontrolable urge in a socially unacceptable package. It really is a comedy sketch.

The day at Silverstone started wet, which meant the Focus RS really doesn’t know what to do apart from ensure that its driver is shrieking at every minor indescretion. Understeer, oversteer, drifting, torquesteer, bumpsteer, scrub, grind and many other popular latino grooves. You name it, it will throw it at you. Thankfully, it’s still a lot of fun and any of those crazy dance moves are delivered with full notice as you’d expect from any fwd hot hatch.

It feels a little cumbersome with its full 1500kg weight apparent on the high speed bends such as maggots, but otherwise has a delicious turn in that works well until you need to drive out of it. In the dry, you can moderate throttle and adjust steering each time the wheels start spinning to pull you out of a turn but in the wet, it’s just a hopeless balance of throttle and a few prayers.  Otherwise you just witness the revs shoot up and the car drift way off line, sometimes dangerously off the tarmac.

Which brings into question the traction control. Ford have done a fantastic job with this. On the road, I’m often looking at the dashboard for any signs that it is intervening, it’s so subtle. On the track, it’s obvious. With traction control on, it works pretty well accelerating out of the wet bends, but get the car into oversteer or any drift, it’s intrusive and stops you from pulling the car back into line again. With TC off, you can play with some ridiculous angles, but forget about those bends.

As the day dried out, so did grip and all 300BHP can be put to effective use. It’s a really fast hatch, no question. Naturally, it loses its punch after about 110MPH when things start to slow down a bit. On Silverstone, that’s noticed as all the GT3’s start to thunder past, providing me with reasons for not wanting to be in the Focus. The odd tussle with R26.R’s were great fun though, with the Focus RS more than a match for the track focused hatches. The closest to a fight was with a car chipped, giving it more power than the Focus RS.

A comment needs to be made about the brakes though, they were fantastic. They offered great peddle feel, did not fade at all and maintained their consistency throughout. The car behaved wonderfully in fact. But it still left me longing for my GT3 as I came out of it feeling as though I’d taken the car as far as I could – there really was nothing further to learn.

Henry, having seen the look of melancholy in my face, handed me his keys to his GT3 and said “Go knock yourself out”….. I really didn’t need convincing and what followed was 10 laps of pure, undiluted, non-filtered bliss. It was an utter joy and within minutes, I was again exploring the many depths, peeling layer after layer from the GT3, only to find new aspects of its character that had previously as yet been undiscovered. “Do you mind if I showboat a bit, Henry?” preceeded some 60deg drifting, naturally for the crowds, in what is the greatest car ever made (TM).

Driving the GT3 after a whole day with the Focus RS was like finding your children after having lost them in a shopping centre. The Focus RS is a magnificent hot hatch, but the GT3 is a touch of divine glory.

After my trackday at Snetterton, my brakes developed an unpleasant noise and vibration. An appointment was made to Porsche Reading to rectify said problem, although my fears were cemented by then – it was obvious the steel brakes were simply not up to the task. A huge disappointment, given how Andreas Preuninger waxed lyrical about them at the launch. Frankly, they’re a huge disappointment and I decided at that point to never spec steel discs on a GT3 again (more on that later!).

Regardless, I was told by Porsche, after countless photos and videos sent to Porsche Germany, that the brakes had been subjected to abuse and would not be covered by neither goodwill nor warranty. I came away perplexed, if there’s one thing I do not do, that’s abuse my cars. I know better than many the cooling cycles necessary for discs during trackday use. So I came home and after some careful consideration, decided to put the car up for sale. I figured winter was coming, it wasn’t going to get any good use and I had the RS coming in March (more on that later!!).

Within a day of putting the car up for sale, Porsche called me and offered to buy the car there and then. Deal done and sold. The car was already at Porsche Reading having the brakes investigated, so it was simply a case of coming to my house to collect the V5 documents. However, after having committed to the sale of the car, I shortly got told that due to dealer process restructuring, I also wouldn’t be getting the GT3RS!

The temptation to cancel my sale on the eve of the buyer turning up was immense and took a number of phonecalls to trusted colleagues to sway me from one side to another. In the end, it took a sensible approach and I let the car go. It’s a MASSIVE shame and I’m more upset about this epic trackday booked for this Sunday at Silverstone. It’s practically a who’s who of trackdays. Still, I’ve just bought something else for the weekend….

As for the RS, I’m going to have to hunt one down in the new year come spring time. I’ve heard there are very limited numbers planned with only about 40 cars due to the UK. This is going to make it very difficult to source one without a premium, but I’ll keep looking.

And my Guards Red GT3? Well, given that it was only in my hands for a few weeks, it’s difficult to really justify the £30k premium over the Gen1 GT3, which, let’s face it, is a stupendously good car. Really, it’s utterly magnificent. And the Gen2? Well, it’s faster, that much is certain – the fact that it can now keep up with a Nissan GT-R on full chat says a lot. It’s also very good looking with significant improvements to it’s overall aesthetic – that rear spoiler is truly epic. It’s also updated with mod-cons such as touch screen sat nav, ipod connector etc.

I’ll miss this car for sure, I didn’t get to really bond with it – I guess I’ll leave that for the RS. Speaking of RS’s….

GT3 is proving to be as predictably good as ever. Just approaching 1000 miles now, the sound is fabulous, speed is pretty feroucious and handling and grip is phenomenal. You really have to be quite violent to shake it. However, steel discs are starting to show signs of warping, I really hope that isn’t the case. Will be dropping into Porsche Reading to investigate.

Regardless, it wasn’t long before a dry line appeared on track and as traffic increased, so did traction, allowing me to further push the GT3 into the farthest reaches of our universe. I’m near on 500 miles with the new GT3, but I can really start to feel the increase in power – not as an absolute, but the minor changes to the map making an overall improvement throughout the whole rev-range. With an unnamed friend in his Nissan GTR (warranty blah blah) acting as reference, I was quite expecting to be left behind, only making time up on the straights. But it didn’t quite pan out that way with a frentic number of sessions consisting of nose to tail action, cementing the fact that the new 3.8 is more than a match for the massively fast GTR.

A forever changing cat and mouse game, the GTR would make progress on the two straights of Snetterton, but the light weight nature of the GT3 made a killing under hard braking and sharp turns. Again the Nissan would take large chunks out of the GT3 from some of the very tight chicane exits, where its four wheel drive would aid exit traction when I’d be crossing my arms trying to keep the car straight (which has been immense fun!).

Where are the improvements? Well, the overall speed of the car is a minor, but noticable difference. There’s also a better connection between steering wheel and front wheels under hard acceleration and turn. I always used to notice a lack of gravity up front as though the steering was searching for some feedback, in vain. That appears to be remedied with some real proper feedback, including less understeer and better communication. But the most significant improvement has to be in its aerodynamics. Hard braking in the Gen1 used to be hugely amusing with sweepstakes trying to determine the direction the car would take – quite often at the point where your braking pressure is at the maximum point before the ABS cuts in. I remember quite clearly in the Gen1 at the huge long straight at Snetterton (Revett straight) you’d be coming down from 140MPH really hard on the brakes, perhaps harder than any other circuit – and the car would jitter and swerve all over. The deep front dam and the exagerated spoiler seem to have given the car impressive road holding that has ultimately aided its on-limit stability.

So, not a huge amount of differences. I have to ask my dealer if I actually got my dynamic engine mounts, because frankly I can’t feel any difference and I’d be mighty pissed off if I’d been sold a marketing gimmick that had no functional value. It’s still a ridiculous car and there really is nothing like it. It’s supremely quick now for a 3.8 normally aspirated car and still retains that unique nibleness and litheness that makes it the envy of cars with twice its horsepower.

Just a word, meanwhile, to the people on trackdays who seem to think it’s OK to piss fuel/oil all over the circuit and remain on the racing line while plumes of smoke destroy your chances of credibility. I know sometimes ‘things’ happen that are outside of your control, but please for the love of god use some common sense.

It’s proper quick. There’s an added sense of urgency now, low down. I remember a slight latency at low revs, but that appears vanquished as the car offers a typically relentless banshee howl. And what a screamer. I’m positive this car is louder, it’s certainly more vocal and I’m really digging the opportunities to bounce sound waves off of low walls.

It also appears, unless I’m mistaken, that Porsche have placed the engine back into the front. That sense of disconnectivity the car had with the road in the first gen GT3 when hard accelerating and turning has all but evaporated, with a real added feeling of weight way up front. Real confidence inspiring stuff.

Snetterton booked for this weekend coming, although not sure I’m going to have a geo set up in time. I’m curious to see how these dynamic engine mounts are on track. And why the hell can’t I play video on my TFT??

I originally expected this car to be ready for pick up sometime yesterday. It’s amazing how much of a drama queen you become when that estimate doesn’t become firm reality. However, pretty sure it was due to happen today, so I took a day off in anticipation.

8.03 am the photos of the car started to trickle in to my mobile phone from the dealer, with the car having just been unloaded from Germany. Generally, a Porsche dealer needs about 3 days to do a full and thorough PDI on a new car. Mine was completed in about 6 hours and they did a sterling job – no doubt a driving factor was my incessant communications trying to establish where exactly the car is!

My initial thoughts after driving about 150 miles (most of which were admittedly horrible motorway miles) are a little surprising. Can I say “The same, but better” without appearing to recite from the Book of Cliches? It’s very very close in character to the original car. The main big area of change is in the aesthetic. Considering we’re taking about an evolved Porsche, that may come across as an oxymoron, but for someone who’s lived with GT3’s for a collection of about 4 years, these are big changes.

That spoiler is the money shot. It’s big and bold without being at the expense of cohesion, there’s no indication that this may well be an aftermarket bolt on option as often the RS models appear to be. The added height and size does make a minor difference to rear-view visibility, but I saw that as a bonus as it hides many of the flashing headlights I seem to acquire shortly after overtaking someone…

The wheels are also spectacular in form and function. The single bolt effect has 2 benefits, one being lighter rotating masses and second being a fast wheel swap, great for trackday tyre swaps. Looking down from above the wheel, the blades have a protuding style that makes them look big. Coupled with the gun metal finish, they look fabulous as a contrast to the red. And what a red. I’d not have thought that guards red would look so fresh, but somehow this GT3 gives it a new lease of life and today it looked vibrant and alive in the sun of our indian summer here in UK.

The daytime running lights give it an air of quality as some of the Audi’s often do. They are LED’s, as are the excellently designed rear clusters, and do a brilliant job of announcing the car as a ‘different’ 911. The main xenon’s are so powerful that they annoyed the hell out of my fellow GT3 driver who I drove up the M1 with today. On full beam they practically wake the birds at night from their peaceful slumber.

Otherwise, apart from the added vent in front of the bonnet, deeper, longer front skirt and reshaped rear bumper, it’s business as usual with the classic 911 tear drop given added menace from an emphasised addition of wings and aerodynamics.

Inside, things are familiar and despite the new PCM3 (sat nav and comms), everything else is predictably Porsche. There is no design in the interior as you’d find in an R8 or an Aston Martin, but the layout of the switchgear is usable and easy to find. They’ve removed a lot of the buttons from gen 1 as the interface is now touchscreen. Coupled with my iPod connection option and the telephone bluetooth module, my iPhone now sits tucked away in the glove box with all my functions available either from the PCM screen or my stalk. The interface is well designed, easy to use and is fast processing too. There were no delays in browsing music or indeed navigating the awesome touch screen sat nav which has a fantastic POI integrated too. With my telephone module I was also able to utilise live, dynamic traffic reports on the fly.

Club sport, light weight buckets are business as normal with the only difference being that they didn’t creak anymore like my old ones! A minor problem with carbon fibre seats. The steering wheel has changed, it’s not very pretty to be honest, but the size is good and with fresh alcantara, felt very comfortable in my hands.

How does it drive? Well, the cars come ready run in on bench dyno’s so the car is good to go, despite some prudence required to run in gearbox, clutch etc. As the new starter motor quickly chirped over, the first thing I noticed was how much smoother the gearbox was with the gearstick moving effortlessly into it’s pockets with satisfying clunks, unlike the gen 1 which had a tendancy to grumble a little – especially from cold.

Power is certainly noticable, mostly in the mid to high range there’s a sense of added urge. It’s still a brand new car so despite the obvious tightness of components, there’s definitely a nice power improvement, at least you can feel the extra 20bhp. Not sure most people would, but having spent 2.5 years with a gen 1, it was nice to see a subtle increase to power without compromise to balance.

The exhaust appeared to be a lot more vocal than before too – I assume a result of managed airflow. It’s louder, no doubt, even at idle, and strangely enough, with the windows open, there seemed to be a lot more driver focused noise. It’s great to hear and the provision of the sport button allows this noise to be modulated.

Brakes were superb on the road. They made for difficult heel and toeing, but this might be because of an elevated pedal height due to brand new pads. On heavy braking, heel and toeing is much easier as you’re pressing the brake pedal much harder. The feel was great, with a touch of the brake pedal returning an appropriate response with feel modulated all the way down to the stoppers. At the moment, I’m happy to have not opted for the PCCB’s as the steel’s have proven excellent on road. How they perform on track is a different matter but I fear they may melt into oblivion.

Suspension too is even better sorted. There’s a feeling of utter compliance and it appears to be a little better than the gen 1 at soaking up undulations and changes to road surface. Whether this is an actual revision or an effect of placebo is unknown. The front ARB is from the GT2 which now has adjustable settings. This will be explored soon, together with a better track day geometry and suspension set up.

Didn’t get an opportunity to play about with the stability control. There were 2-3 eerie moments today when it appeared there was some over zealous control of the traction with power appearing to be cut down on slow speed bends. The old car would not have needed traction control at these points so I’m wondering if it’s because the tyres are still new. I hope that this sorts itself out otherwise the installment of the new stability control will be switched off by me.

All in all, an accomplished car that is pretty much identical to the previous car it replaces, but with a whole catalogue of very small changes. There’s a sense of tightness with the car, a lack of any slack, that allows you to extend on its immense repertoir of capabilities knowing full well that there is a clear line of communication between car and driver that is always vibrant and energetic. In my opinion, the original 997 GT3 was a perfect car. To elaborate and improve on so many areas has led to the development of a car that is yet again without peer.

I have a couple of trackdays booked, that’s when I’ll test out the new dynamic engine mounts. Can’t wait.

At some point today, it’ll be ready to pick up. I think I’ll just head down to the dealer today and lick the window all day.

Frankfurt show was huge and I must have walked at least 10 miles today, glad to have got off the plane and into home. Some truly spectacular stages were set, especially the BMW stage with its elevated circuit across the stages. Some fantastic design and use of video and audio created a wonderful motorshow experience. Some of these sets must have cost in excess of multiple millions, it shows that the car industry is not quite knocked out yet and showed how important the German market is.

Porsche GT3 RS was fabulous. In the flesh it’s looking the proper tool of function we’ve come to expect from Porsche, as you use a hammer to drive a nail in, so you use a GT3 to best circuits with. Previously, the GT3 was good enough, but this new iteration has a wealth of differences between cooking vanilla GT3 and RS to warrant my interest. I’ve got a first place position and cannot wait.
Colour is interesting, it’s called ‘Black Grey’ and is one of the four options. However, it HAS been confirmed that there WILL be colour to sample, which means a variety of different colour options. However, these will not be offered before early summertime 2010. LHD deliveries are expected to start November / December with RHD UK deliveries due February time.
The good: That spoiler is a work of art.
The bad: The cloth door pulls are really wrong.
The ugly: Clashing colour schemes?

Panamera had the most ridiculously big brakes.

Ferrari 458 looks much better up close and personal with some dramatically futuristic design cues. Very angular, very sharp – it’s a future proof design, but often they’re the kind that age quickest.

New BMW 7 series looked fantastic in white. Really loved that car and a proper highlight.

Sanity is still fighting with emotion, but for the first time in many years, the RS appears to inherit all the characteristics of the GT3 but with a key number of added wow’s.

Not an exclusive list, but:
Short ratio, short shift gearbox
15bhp +
Titanium exhaust
Wider front track
RS specific PASM suspension
Bigger wheels
Dynamic engine mounts as standard

As for looks, opinions are divided. At first I was bewildered by the choices afforded, but time has been sympathetic and now I want one pretty badly.

I’ve rang pretty much every dealer in the country and the order books are already filled. My dealer says he can get me one – but I’m looking at 5th place in the queue there. I guess it serves me right for not acting quickly when I had the chance!!

New YouTube version (I think I’m gonna migrate to YouTube all my vids)

Great article in Evo a month or two back where Henry Catchpole wrote:
The ‘So what’s your favourite car, then?’ question is tricky. I get asked it a lot. It’s a staple query from random, well-meaning people at christenings and engagement parties, most of whom like watching Clarkson & Co on Sunday evenings. I used to launch into a small speech about why it’s simply impossible to pick a favourite and how you need a big barn with at least ten parking spaces so that there’s room for a car for every situation. Five minutes later, just as I’d be explaining why an F40 is not really a choice but a necessity, I’d realise that their eyes had glazed over – they didn’t like cars that much and this wasn’t the quick, satisfactory answer they wanted.
Then I drove a GT3. I still maintain the ten-car principle, but now I always say that if I won the lottery I would walk straight out the next day and buy a 911 GT3

Evo Magazine Review of GT3

I concur old boy, I concur.

Regardless, I must go on. This car is MINT guys, you will not find a cleaner example at this price.
so….

In anticipation of my new arrival due end of September, I am now putting up for sale the best car I’ve ever owned.
Most of you know this car, but for those that don’t:

• 997 GT3
• White
• Club Sport spec
• Carbon bucket race seats
• Red belts
• Drivers and passengers harnesses
• Centre console painted in white
• Bi-Xenon lighting system
• Porsche Communication Management (PCM) including navigation module
• Sound Package Plus incl. CD storage box
• Carbon kick plates
• Porsche floor mats
• Wheel centre set
• Windscreen with grey top tint

Brakes
FRONT: PF Discs and pads on front (over 75% life left)
REAR: OE discs and RS29 pads (over 75% life left)
18,500 miles
Remainer of extended Official Porsche Warranty (8 months)

Full Porsche Service History

In addition to this, there’s a suitcase full of receipts, some I’m proud of, some I don’t like looking at! They represent the level of care that has gone into this car.

It’s just had another service at FearnSport, supplementary to service schedule requirements.
The car has also recently had a non-essential gearbox oil change. RMS was done recently under warranty and has been replaced by the now indestructable metal piece. All GT3’s will need this at some point.

It has gone through it’s entire life with vinyl protection (this has been replaced fully once a year). The front skirt is brand new and the front bumper is resprayed (as all OPC cars are).

Wheels do not have a SINGLE mark on them, no kerbed alloys.

This is a car that looks and feels like it has just come out of the showroom and needs not a penny spending on it. Matt at Fearnsport has brough this car to new condition and I daren’t see it in case I drive it again. It’s even got a brand new windscreen dammit!

Price to release car is £65k. No further offers as I have committed considerable spend on the car recently to ensure it’s showroom fresh. It has literally cost me thousands.

Inspections welcome. It’s currently sat at Fearnsport and will remain there until it’s sold.

For some of my more memorable exploits with this car, you can read here:

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We eventually found an awesome spot in the back of the Tesco’s distribution centre. However, the shelf stacker got an opportunity to demonstrate some authority and had us out of there too. Essentially, the whole night was a failure. Even Guy was pulled over by the local police, not for breaking the law but simply because they were curious about ‘whether this was the new GTR?’.

Despite the lack of success throughout the night, as each minute passed I became more enamoured by the sheer presence of Guy’s GTR in the night roads. I had the same feeling watching the car cruise in the midnight light, with it’s rear LED’s, as I felt when I used to watch Knight Rider as a child. There’s this sense of scale and competence that was quite overpowering. I couldn’t help but follow in it’s shadow as it’s rear lights painted red lines across the evening landscape.

Photos were scarce, but here’s one for kicks.

Today I attended the special GT3 preview event which discussed the results of the survey and also went onto disclose a whole host of detailed information about the next gen. GT3. This was coupled with breakfast, a number of hotlaps in a 997S, skid pan, wet plate in a Cayman S and also an ‘ice-hill’. All hugely fun and the best memory is of the 997S. It was a manual with the GT3 carbon bucket seats and was a real revelation. It’s all the car anyone would ever need really and with Carrera S’s in the £30k’s now, they are a far more attractive alternative to the Caymans. Also drove the PDK in the Cayman today and boy that was weird. Not sure if it simply wasn’t suited to the Cayman S (perhaps not enough power?) but the whole set up wasn’t attractive to me.

As for the colour debate, I’m almost positively kind of sure now that Guards Red is the colour to go for. With the harsh, motorshow spotlights absent, the car was at last shown in a normal light and really did look excellent. That spoiler is the best looking spoiler I’ve ever seen and the small subtle changes work really well, such as the change in wheel design.

Andreas Preuninger, 997 GT3 and RS project manager was there to answer some questions and teamed with the rest of the organisers, really did put on an informative, entertaining day out. He also leaked out some information about the forthcoming Gen 2 (Mk2) GT3 RS:

• More power (14BHP more)
• RSR Front suspension
• Titanium components (Exhaust)
• Wider front track
• ‘Stealth look’ colour schemes – not so brash or loud this time
• Hinted at string door pulls
• New decal scheme
• Shorter gear ratio’s
• £15k – £20k price premium over vanilla GT3
• October unveil, February production
• Frankfurt Motorshow unveil.

All in all, enough to warrant a premium this time over the normal GT3. It appeared the heaviest criticism levied on Andreas’ team was the fact that there was not enough differentiation between the two models to justify the premium. I’m almost tempted to transfer my deposit. Almost….

A massive undertaking this car, but the results are pretty neat. As car makers continually strive to maximise profits and cut costs, a recent trend is to cut depth of paint reducing the protective nature of the laquer. Finger nail marks, scratches and swirl marks appear so quickly it dulls the otherwise deep black shine. After the treatment, the results were hugely impressive.

The GT3, resplendent as always, triggered thoughts of sale and closure. With an operation to my shoulder due imminently, there’s going to be very little use for the car in the coming weeks/months. Sale ad up soon :(

It’s quite a lethargic powerplant, but this time round I’ve realised this car is just desperate for a 6 speed box. The given five gears are simply way too long and does nothing other than accentuate the lethargy of the engine. Still, it’s not without character and coupled with the energetic, somewhat surprisingly masculine soundtrack, is sufficient in encouraging a sense of conflicted urgency. The gearing makes for comical heal and toeing though, the blips in throttle followed very quickly by a low rev engine note out of tune with the action.

Handling is of course class leading, with a lithe, nimble approach to every road condition and a reactive, accommodating chassis that communicates and follows instruction without hint of debate nor complaint. It really is quite a funky little pet. £17k gets you one of these and for a quality, well built convertible that is used strictly as a second/third car, it’s hard to beat. Its lack of toys and in-cabin luxuries are offset by a chunky, quality texture to controls and input. The roof control is as simple as is efficient, with the roof coming up and down in a matter of seconds.

I have to say though, coming from a white GT3, it may come as a little strange to admit to feeling a little ‘exposed’ when driving the car. Not in the sense a convertible would leave you feeling ‘exposed’, but a genuine feeling that everybody else on the road thinks you’re a total and utter wanker.

It was just a feeling, that’s all.

I’ve never been a fan of Silverstone, often treating it as nothing other than a large expanse of asphalt too boring for anything other than F1 where cosmic speeds require such wide expanse of runways. However, having destroyed Silverstone this weekend, it is with much regret must I revoke my prior claims of boredom and malcontent as with an increased pace and confidence have I discovered that Silverstone is far more technical than I have ever given it credit for.

I’m using my oversized Corsa Race tyres on the car which have proven to be a revelation in tyre tech, but more importantly have given me the freedom to depend reliably on the tyres enough so I may focus on improving lines and absorbing the very characteristic of my car, which continues to be the utterly benign and predictable beast I’ve come to expect from it.

It’s funny as this week I’ve also had a GT3 specific survey from Porsche. It’s sent to current owners and goes through about 8 pages of very interesting questions – some of which really do prove that Porsche are extremely focused in ensuring this car is very different from the other 911 models. It gladdens me to see Porsche continue to cater for the minority and I hope to god no idiots checked the boxes which suggest owners need more ‘comfort’ or ‘on road civility’. I humbly ask Porsche to ignore any such requests.

So it is with huge respect to Porsche that I continue to gape and gasp at the sheer capability the 997 affords and entertains me. Naturally, the car isn’t a puppy as is often demonstrated – another white 997 GT3 on the same day unfortunately blended in holy matrimony with the tyre wall and, I suspect, cost its owner dearly by way of writing itself off the planet.

But I digress, my car and I are still in love; even after I drive home from an exhausting trackday 100 miles from home, unpack my bags (helmet is permanently left in car) and reverse into the garage, opening said garage the next day to polish out the black rubber marks off the bodywork by turning the key and driving 10 feet out to my drive for a wash, I am filled with a sense of euphoria and complete and utter satisfaction.

I was offered a good price for the car today – a very good price. And I refused it. On what grounds? I hear you ask. Well, there simply wasn’t another GT3 on the market that I wanted to replace it with. Even though Porsche claim ‘Everything has the capacity for improvement’, when asked to list things that disappointed me about the GT3, I was digging for scraps in a barrel and came up with “No iPod connection”. It really is utterly perfect.

When on circuit, in your GT3, when in the ‘zone’, with the alcantara steering wheel working in association with your clammy hands and beads of sweat dripping from your helmet down the side of your temple, the soft chirp-chirp of tyres working at their absolute limit, disputing with the laws of physics as to how lateral grip is working beyond the call of duty, there is absolutely no other place I want to be when chasing that extra percentage.

997GT3 at Silverstone chasing Baff in his RS from Cem Kocu on Vimeo.

GT3 at Silverstone chasing Ken and Pete from Cem Kocu on Vimeo.

GT3 chasing a race 360 at Silverstone from Cem Kocu on Vimeo.

GT3 at Silverstone from Cem Kocu on Vimeo.

As spring rears it’s anticipated head, the beehive of activity surrounding this community of events gains momentum and the contagious energy shared by anyone interested in cars and octane reels in fanatics alike to the many locations across the UK, now amongst the most active trackday scene in the world.

It’s not just glory and fame though, with the pleasure gained from the few hours destroying tyres from increased friction, the eroding pads from over-zealous braking later and later by the minute, and the visible evidence of fuel being burnt at alarming rates – not least those who find misfortune and misery buried deep in the tyre walls of our championed locales. No, these moments of memory can be overshadowed by the vast quantities of funds that can be swallowed whole through the pursuit of these sports.

The GT3 is a remarkable benchmark, offering supercar levels of performance, but with relatively low running costs. Employ a modicum of mechanical sympathy, however, and your car is constantly being looked after by independants and official Porsche centre’s alike. Oil changes, filter changes, gear boxes, brakes, pads, discs, suspension, wheels, tyres, vinyl protection, resprays, ad infinitum.

I won’t disclose the small fortune this week has cost me in preparation for this week’s trackday at Oulton Park, but it’s enough to challenge your on-track sympathy. I can also see the logic of using a smaller, lighter, cheaper car for trackday thrills – something that uses smaller brakes, uses narrower tyres, has running costs so low it’d be cheaper to buy a new engine than to rebuild it.

All those thoughts evaporate after another spirited drive in the car. I am actually quite excited to pick the car up from Fearnsport tomorrow. By all intents, it should feel like a new car with almost all consumables refreshed to new standard. Add to this the fact that Porsche have just charged me £1400.00 for one year warranty renewal, I’m on top of the world (of debt).

Titled “From the inner sanctum; The new 911 GT3″, it was not without frenzied demolishing of said envelope and subsequent careful removal of enclosed glossy envelope, I spent the next 20 minutes reading cover to cover and then reading again details of the Mk2 997 GT3.

As ever with 911 evolution, the product is never broken enough to warrant redevelopment from the ground up, but instead a careful considered review of essential upgrades that could constitute some reaction to owner wish lists. The list of changes are healthy enough for me to start deliberating colour choices already, but those that stick out are:

• Bored out engine to 3.8 (0-100mph in 8.2 secs!)
• Adaptive engine mounts (not sure about this – am hoping it doesn’t provide an artificial handling characteristic)
• PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management)
• One piece new design GT3 wheels (excellent for fast race track exchanges)
• Front axle lifting system (great for London driveways and speed ramps)
• PSM (Porsche Stability Management – thankfully it’s switchable)
• Larger brake discs (380mm)
• GT2 style carbon buckets (they recline now instead of one piece fixed)
• PCM (Porsche Communication Management – touch screen sat nav with ipod connectivity)

There are sufficient upgrades for me to warrant the upgrade cost from mine, the only question is – what colour – Red, White or Grey????

PDK transmission
Direct fuel injection
Updated PCM with touchscreen sat nav, ipod connection, tv (don’t laugh – this stuff is awesome when you’re doing a 4 hour journey across heavily policed motorways!)
And this awesome colour!

I’ve had my name down on the Porsche dealer network for 2 years now, but in traditional dawg luck, I will be 10th in the queue or some such.