DYNASTY OF SPEED

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT,” said Cameron McConville. “One of the most impressive cars I’ve ever had the pleasure to drive. Damn near impossible to fault.” Cam had just punted the Porsche 996 911 GT3 to 293km/h at Holden’s Lang Lang proving ground. With a passenger, no less. The occasion was Performance Car of the Year 2000 and Porsche’s new road-racer had just blown everything else away, beating the second-best Maserati 3200GT by 20km/h. Oh, and it was 10 per cent quicker than anything else to 100km/h and over the quarter mile.

Thus started arguably the most impressive run of excellence the performance car world has ever seen. To drive any 911 GT3 is to wonder if driving can get any better, yet history teaches us that every few years a new one will emerge offering greater performance, sharper dynamics and more excitement. So what better way to celebrate the model’s 20th birthday than to unite the cars that book-end the story – the original 996 GT3 and the latest 991.2 GT3 RS – to examine the