Porsche 911 GT3 RS – interior and tech

The RS’s driving environment is fantastic and the steering wheel is so small, but with the seat wound down low the widened Turbo shell seems to sprawl around you. No complaints about the quietly serious messages that whisper from everything you touch or see, though. From the taut Alcantara trim to the satin-finish carbon for the door handles, the RS feels at once pared-back and reassuringly solid – fittingly, like a car you wouldn’t hesitate to jump into for a double stint through the night. The view out over the vented bonnet is evocative of the shrill whizz of wheelguns and that thick smell of hot tyres, too. 

The side mirrors are full of gaping intakes, and the rear wing is so tall it would afford a fantastic view were it not for the thick spars of the oddly shaped but gorgeous carbonfibre roll-cage (part of the £29,600 Weissach Package, which also includes things like the titanium paddleshifters and visible carbonfibre for the exterior, accompanying the aforementioned carbon anti-roll bars and mag wheels) and hot air streams through the bonnet to such an extent that the world occasionally seems to be in soft focus. But it is the real world, full of vans, hatchbacks and SUVs. The RS feels like a superhero in line at the supermarket check-out. 

Having said that, it still has the same PCM infotainment system you’d find in a regular Carrera, as well as a part-digital dash. All the niceties you’d expect from a modern sports car are present, albeit shrouded in a pared back, single-minded driving environment.