Features

It doesn't have a nice Perspex cover above it to say "ooh, here I am and aren't I lovely?" It doesn't have pretty valve covers or badging or exposed exhaust manifolds. No. It's the ugliest engine in Christendom - it looks like the back of an old washing machine. And who gives a bugger? Because it doesn't need to look any different - it's designed to slam the car down the road as fast as possible. And sod beauty, it's the driving that counts.

If it looks like a washing machine, then it certainly sounds like one. The lack of aesthetic buggering about extends to the engine sound - at least at low revs. It's all mashing, clattering valves and mechanical din invading the cabin. Sure, the Porsche guys could engineer a lot of that roughness out, they could acoustically tune it, but why? It's not a clarinet, it's a supercar engine.

The noise it makes is a direct result of the purpose the engineers have set for it. If you love it - and many of us do - then great, the Porsche guys appreciate your understanding. If you hate it, they couldn't give a flying fig. Buy a CD of pretty V8 engine sounds and play it, if that's what you want. Play it in your BMW.

It's when you let it off the leash that its real character shouts at you - a howl that makes me grin like, well, like a bloke at the wheel of someone else's £94k Porsche supercar every time I hear it.

This sound couldn't be anything other than a Porsche flat-six, but it's louder and more aggressive in this GT3 than the standard Carrera. It is simply a more extreme expression of the same beast in standard form.

I can't tell you how much I love a Porsche for its lack of pretence, its lack of engineered-on glitz and garnish. It doesn't need added character, because it has character oozing from every micron. And let's not forget, they may only be numbers on a page, but those figures also mean it's stunningly fast in real life - that 10-second 0-100mph time is only 10ths away from a Turbo.

Here's a thing - why don't you see more Lamborghinis and Ferraris and Astons at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, the world's greatest, most demanding race track?

Because they're not built to take it, and their owners aren't the sort of drivers who'd enjoy thrashing their expensive cars round there.They would rather admire their engine through its Perspex lid or listen to their CD of V8s singing opera. But go to the 'Ring on a public day and the place is chock-full of 911 GT3s. That's purity of purpose for you.