Paul Stephens

Stunning GT3 Club Sport Bi-Turbo GTR600 - £39,995 

About 10 years ago a car built to the same specification as this one by legendary engine builders TTP in Germany lapped the Nordschleife in 7 minutes 32 seconds. Only two Porsches have ever officially gone quicker - the Carrera GT and the 2010 911 GT2 RS.

According to the official stats we could find no Lamborghini has gone as quick and the only Ferrari to post a faster time is the Enzo.

If you're in any doubt what that means, it means that this car is astonishingly, brutally, epically quick. The manufacturers quote a 211mph top speed and we can well believe it. You will need a car in the league of a Veyron or McLaren F1 to go notably faster than this 911 goes.

TTP began with a standard UK specification Mk1 996 GT3 Club Sport, a very rare car in itself with just 28 said to have been built.

The engine was rebuilt to produce 600bhp and 650Nm including Turbo pistons to reduce the compression ratio, titanium con rods, a pair of K24 turbos fed through an enormous custom intercooler, a custom exhaust system,  improved oil cooling and a TTP ECU.

To accommodate the intercooler a different engine lid and rear wing are used. Weight is saved through a composite front bonnet, the front bumper features larger air intakes and the mirross are reduced in size. The visual changes over a standard GT3 are actually rather subtle, they are designed for function rather than merely to add visual drama.

Wheel and tyre sizes are up very slightly to accommodate the increased performance.

Inside is thankfully largely unchanged from standard. Two extra gauges sit beneath the centre console - one showing boost pressure and the other gearbox oil temperature and there are aluminium pedals, but very little else gives away the madness that lies within.

Indeed press the accelerator one quarter of its travel and it drives just like a standard GT3 - light, beautifully balanced, perfect steering, amazing ability on the brakes and through the bends. The car can be trickled through traffic, it idles calmly and pulls smoothly and gently when you need it to. The engineering that has gone into this car is clearly something very special, it's not a chucked-together tuner-special. It's no harder to drive than Porsche's own GT cars, it really could be driven to work every day. You can hear the radio at motorway speed, it's got air con, the driving position is comfortable - it's a Porsche.

But push a little harder on the right pedal and it becomes something else. The forward thrust is utterly incredible. The way it piles on speed is like nothing else we can remember having here. Subjectively, we'd say it *feels* quicker than a Carrera GT, such is the shove of the two turbos. Windows down and through a tunnel it sounds fabulous - a real race car sound track, that somehow disappears to relative quietness at small throttle openings and with the windows up.

Of course, if you want to drive it hard this car demands respect. Being a 996 GT3, that monster torque and power is being delivered only to the rear wheels and without any electronic assistance to keep wheelspin in check.

It is a car for someone who wants to be challenged when they drive quickly, a car that takes time to learn how to control at its limits, a car for someone who gets satisfaction from mastering a machine rather than just from driving quickly and letting the machine sort it out for them.

Just thinking about driving it induces butterflies and sweaty palms.

It is both rarer and quicker than a GT2 and arguably its narrower shell and lighter weight give it a more delicate, more nimble feel on the road.

For most people with a speed craving a 997 Turbo or a Nissan GTR would be a better choice, but those who seek a deeper relationship with the controls of their car, who can do without driver aids or all wheel drive to flatter their abilities and who understand there is more to driving excitement than just point-to-point speed, this GT3 is something very, very special indeed.

We have known and serviced this car for the last six years and have known the owner many times longer than that. It has just had a service and a new genuine clutch fitted.

It has covered fewer than 16,000 miles and is in fantastic order throughout.

We do not know of another TTP GTR600 in the country.

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