Rain always sounds worse on a conservatory roof,’ I tell photographer Matt Howell as we sit down to our hotel breakfast. I can’t explain away the wind tearing at the fabric of the Groes Inn or the fact that by the time we’ve cleaned our plates the sky has changed only marginally, from black to inky deep blue, even though the sun has officially risen. Secretly, I’m not that bothered. Parked in the rain-lashed car park are three four-wheel-drive supercars that are designed to be reassuringly, comfortably brilliant in such conditions.

As it happens, by the time we’ve gathered our things and paid our bill, the near-apocalyptic weather has magically blown through, leaving peaceful, watery sunshine. Over the next couple of days we’ll experience a useful variety of conditions, enabling us to decide if Porsche’s mid-life revisions to the 997 Turbo have done the job, namely to draw it closer to its arch nemesis, the thorn in its side, the Nissan GT-R.

Porsche’s engineers haven’t confined themselves to tinkering around the edges: the Turbo has an all-new, direct-injection 3.8-litre engine, a new paddle-shift PDK gearbox and, as I discovered driving here yesterday, a new attitude. There’s a tautness to its demeanour that’s more GT3 than previous-edition Turbo, suggesting a shift in focus towards control at the expense of a little comfort. And when you get the throttle to the stop and feel the air squeezed gently from your lungs as the bigger, 493bhp engine works rapidly through seamlessly shifting gears and into three figures, you know the GT-R has a real fight on its hands. Yet even as that prospect looms, you can’t help wondering if in targeting the Nissan, the Turbo hasn’t left more room for the third car in this test, the Audi R8 V10.

We’ve already put a couple of hundred miles under this trio’s wheels getting here and there will be many more. On this occasion, north Wales is not the destination but the stepping-off point, as we set out on a tour of the principality’s race tracks, of which there are three. Not a bad tally for a country whose national motorsport I’d always assumed was rallying. First stop is the much re-worked Anglesey Circuit, and from there we’ll travel the length of the country to visit Pembrey and Llandow on the south coast, cadging a lap or two where we can and hopefully discovering some brilliant new roads on the way.