The Week in Cars #7

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Porsche's 911 GT3 RS is tested and Mercedes gets a new engine for the E-Class and a new rival for the S-Class: the Polestar 1.

Porsche 911 GT3 RS review: can the perennial irritatingly good sports car hold its own on track?

Annoyingly, it can. 513bhp and a screaming 4.0l naturally-aspirated flat-six tends to do that. The headline figures are the redline of the engine and the extraordinary power squeezed from a relatively small engine.

That's 20bhp more than the standard car and the same 9,000rpm limiter, but a new, GT2 RS-derived aerodynamics package and a substantial £143,000 pricetag. So is it worth it?

Lizard Green is a bold colour choice. Picture credits: Evo
The 991.2 911 GT3 RS has lapped the Nürburgring already, in a scorching 6:56.4, thanks to all the new aero gubbins and the extra power. That is faster than the 875bhp 918 Spyder, and is also known as progress.

"It climbs through the 7 gears with a lively fervour, the engine scaling the stairway to 9,000rpm with a spine-tingling wail"

But really, if you want raw speed, you would get the GT2 RS, so Porsche needs this car to drive well. And it does. The suspension, though firm, is superbly set up, and the electric power steering even delivers genuine feedback, something barely any other OEMs' systems have perfected yet. The chassis balance is bewitching, with a sharp turn-in yet a predictable rear end, and we haven't even got onto the engine yet. It climbs through the 7 gears with a lively fervour, the engine scaling the stairway to 9,000rpm with a spine-tingling wail and the PDK gearbox wired into your synapses. This is a properly good car.

A transcendent engine, a brilliant chassis and the fact that it is green all combine to turn this into an amazing machine, one which deserves recognition in the pantheon of the greatest supercars of all time.
100%

Also, their 1,250bhp 919 Evo hasn't been obliterating any more lap records as of yet, but we will reveal all the latest news on it as soon as we can.

In addition to that, I have forgotten to write an article on the 405bhp new BMW M2 Competition, but just expect upgraded everything.

Mercedes E53 AMG

 When the '53' straight-six came out in the CLS, it upset AMG fanboys because it was too quiet and gentle, a far cry from their favourite head-banging V8 AMGs of old. And now it has been dropped into the E-Class (in basically the exact same configuration, so a 9spd auto and AWD), us petrolheads can do no more than shake our V8-loving heads.

Polestar 1
Although the 500-off Polestar 1 has already been revealed, prices for the 592bhp, 738lb ft hybrid have been revealed, and they aren't cheap. £135k is the total amount you'll need to cough up via Polestar's (basically Volvo's electric brand) subscription service.

I hope you enjoyed TWiC once again and as always, TWiC #9 will arrive at some point next Sunday.



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