| First Drive | Nice, France | Porsche 911 GT3 RS |

Porsche doesn't need to advertise the GT3; its racing activities put the lightweight machine directly in front of the right audience. The RS version even more so, Porsche's homologation version raising the bar higher than the already sensational GT3. In this iteration it's wider, has more power, shorter gear ratios and generates almost double the downforce of its lesser-stickered relative. It's quicker to 62mph too, if only 0.1 seconds so. At around £20,000 more it's significantly more expensive than the GT3, but it's well worth the extra.

In the Metal

Today's RS takes the coloured-wheel and decaled look of the '73 original to a new, far more overt, level. You're left with no doubt that this isn't merely a GT3. New GT3 RS stickers trail up over the front wing behind the headlamp while its twin slides off its opposite rear wing. Add the chequered effect down the RS's flanks, new wheels, wing mirrors and a central front air intake coloured in the same opposing hue and the RS is far from subtle.

Look beyond the stickers though and the RS reveals more detailed changes over its GT3 relative. There's a massive new carbon fibre rear wing resting on aluminium struts, re-profiled air intakes and outlets in the front bumper, a longer front splitter, a revised engine cover, a plastic rear window and wider front and rear wings covering the RS's increased track. Inside, Clubsport specification is standard, so there's a cage and figure-hugging lightweight seats, along with RS specific items like lightweight door trims and pull straps in place of handles for opening the doors.

What you get for your Money

Less weight. That's always been what the RS is about and every kilo of weight the RS loses over its GT3 relative costs you around £800. Underlining its hardcore focus you can have it without air conditioning and lose the stereo too, the weight purists able to go even further by binning the standard headlamps and their washers, adding even lighter fixed back sports seats and Porsche's PCCB carbon ceramic brakes. There's even the option of a lighter lithium ion battery that saves 10kg. Start getting too obsessive about the weight and you could quickly find yourself spending significantly more than the RS's £104,841 list price.

Notably, the RS gains power, albeit just 15bhp; raising the output from the 3.8-litre unit to 444bhp. The engine features a lighter single-mass flywheel and the gearbox comes with revised, shorter ratios, bringing the 0-62mph time down to four seconds dead, though thanks to its substantially increased downforce a standard GT3 betters the RS's 192mph top speed.

Driving it

With that rev-hungry 3.8-litre flat-six having just 1,370kg to shift it'll come as no surprise that the RS is rapid. It's difficult initially to see quite where the differences lie between it and the GT3, but time with it reveals the harder, even purer focus of the RS. The first thing that is apparent is how much noisier it is. The RS's engine chunters away like a race car at idle and the exhaust note is different thanks to both the GT3 RS's freer breathing titanium exhaust system and the differing resonance that occurs inside thanks to the RS's plastic rear window.

You'll barely hear the engine and exhaust on the move though, as your senses are overloaded with other information. Specifically through the steering wheel, the Alcantara rimmed sports wheel offering just about the best combination of weighting, accuracy and feedback possible. There's no slack in the system, the RS's nose going exactly where you want it once there's some heat in the wide, lightly treaded Michelin Pilot Sport tyres. The wider track at the front makes itself evident with an even keener turn in, and a greater resistance to understeer. Indeed, it'll be a seriously ham-fisted driver, or one with cold tyres in the wet, who breaches the front end grip of the RS at road speeds.

The rear feels similarly planted, Porsche's suspension engineers managing to enable the track-focussed RS to ride with quite astonishing composure on its unique PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) settings. It's certainly taut, but it's rarely if ever harsh. That allows you to carry the so easily gained pace with ridiculous ease, the RS demonstrating ably on tortuously twisty and sometimes shockingly surfaced roads that it's not merely a smooth track-only machine.

The brakes provide the expected incredible stopping power, though the middle pedal's positioning is a touch high for easy, everyday heel and toe downshifts. The gearbox in our test car didn't always shift with the sort of mechanical precision we'd like, the second to third change in particular feeling a touch tight - though we'd expect that to loosen out as more miles roll under the RS's lightweight single nut wheels.

You need to use the gearbox more too, as Porsche's engineers have shortened the first five ratios by around 11% and altered the sixth by 5% for greater sprinting ability. Combine that with the faster revving engine and you're busy with the gearstick, but that's all part of the RS's unique appeal. Stability and traction control systems come as standard, their effect subtle and switchable, but it's a brave or otherworldly talented driver who'll switch everything off on a wet road with those special tyres lacking heat - or much in the way of tread. In the dry the RS will do anything you ask of it, whether you're after eye-widening precision at speed through long sweepers, or show-off power oversteer exiting tighter bends.

Worth Noting

Apparently the GT3 RS produces 170kg of positive downforce at 186mph, which is four times as much as its predecessor. All that downforce, its extra sprinting ability and the slight increase in power allow it to lap the Nürburgring in 7 minutes 33 seconds. That's a whole seven seconds quicker than the standard GT3 and just one second slower than the Carrera GT supercar.

Hardcore, but not overly compromised as a result, though if you want to avoid costly sounding scrapes at driveway entrances or over traffic calming speed-bumps then the optional nose lifting kit is a sensible addition.

Summary

Small but significant tweaks distance the new 911 GT3 RS from its GT3 sibling, though not at the expense of usability. It's hard to justify the price premium when looked at rationally, but a drive underlines the RS's clearer focus, sharper steering response and even more eager engine. It's a very special car.