Porsche 997 GT3 RS 4.0 vs. 991 Carrera S

As I write this, it’s exactly six months since a simple twist of a key silenced one of the greatest production engines of all time. And despite the passage of time, the memory of that enveloping silence remains vivid. As does every run to the engine’s 8500rpm redline, every throttle-blipped downshift and every time the speedo needle stormed past 300km/h (187mph)

The Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 is seared into my memory like no other car in my 15 year career as a motoring journalist. It is simply the best car I’ve driven.

My love for the RS 4.0 stems from a 1200 mile blast through Germany and France – much of it at very high speed. In fact, on German autobahns, the 368kW (493hp) GT3 whipped me to 300km/h on at least 20 occasions, peaking at 313km/h (196mph) on the nav-based testing equipment while the speedo claimed 325km/h (202mph). Of the Porsches in my top speed back catalogue, only the 331km/h (206mph) achieved in a GT2 tops it.