Ah, this is more like it. In these days when Porsche press releases were usually to tell us that it's doing something very un-Porsche, like making a diesel 4x4 or saloon, or aggressively buying shares in VW, it's nice to see this: a ridiculous looking and ridiculously fast Stuttgart-ian racing car.

With its round headlamps and monstrously flared arches, the new 911 GT3 RSR looks like a 930 Turbo 'enhanced' by an over-enthusiastic and overpaid Thatcher-era City boy. Which is to say, of course, it looks ridiculously amazing.

It's the most powerful 911-based racecar Porsche does, and it shows. The redesigned front skirt and bonnet louvers are indicative of the mechanical changes the new RSR has undergone. The air ducting has been redesigned to better cool the bored out 4.0-litre six-cylinder boxer engine, which develops 444bhp at 7,800rpm and 317lb.ft at 7,250rpm.

It revs to 9,400rpm, too, so you can imagine that this rear-drive beast is a tricky little fella on the limit. The brakes are lighter than its predecessor's and sit inside some tasty three-piece BBS alloys, and the rear wing is more adjustable too.

The cockpit is pure racing, with a full roll cage, sequential shift (with an optimum change light on the dash), and anything unnecessary thrown out - though you can specify air conditioning. You can also adjust the rate the front lights blink at - useful for putting other racers off or, more sportingly, so that your pit crew can recognise you in the dark.

Built to compete in long haul racing programmes like the Nurburgring 24 Hours and the American Le Mans series (both of which it proved highly successful in last year), the GT3 RSR also features such time-shaving and energy-saving features as a new air jack system and fast oil filling.

Yours for around £360,000 plus VAT, the Porsche GT3 RSR will probably win a few more races this year too.

Mark Nichol - 22 Jan 2009