In all honesty I really didn't need a PH Buying Guide to convince me of the GT3's virtues; I've yearned for one since 2017 now. But what an excuse to ramble on some more. While I know that the 997 and 996 are the ones we're meant to get frothiest about, and the 991 seemingly always embroiled in some kind of scandal, you'll persuade me no other way: this is what I want. A lot. The only choice, really, would be between standard GT3 or Touring.
Why do I love it so? For me, it's the 991.2's ability to combine all the intensity of a great 911 GT experience with a standard car's approachability. It can be as docile or as deranged as your journey requires, with seemingly no penalty. In the manual the clutch is no longer a workout, the 4.0-litre means some more torque, and the 991 is just about on the right side of usable in terms of size - I adore it.
And this one is exactly the sort of GT3 I picture each Friday, picking seven more Euromillions numbers. A manual, Clubsport (because I'm a sucker for a cage), carbon-bucketed GT3. Very nearly three-years old and covered by a Porsche warranty for another couple, it truly remains quite hard to think of a modern car I want more. I'd use it every day, praying that it doesn't scrape on speedbumps and that I can squeeze it through width restrictors. Then find every possible excuse to use 9,000rpm, again and again and again. £120,000, you say? Bargain.
MB
The new i30N is nearly upon us, as Dan relayed this week from Germany. But frankly there was scant wrong with the outgoing one. Sure, it was a little less rounded than the Mk7 Golf GTI which Hyundai furiously benchmarked it against, yet it was also quicker and louder and a lot more fun. Handily it was cheaper, too - and without its rival's longstanding reputation to prop it up, it has only become more attractive in the long grass of used values.
Behold one from 2018 (with admittedly above average miles) for comfortably less than £20k. For that you get a proper five-door family hatchback with 275hp, big wheels and all the kit you're realistically ever going to need. Granted, Performance Blue is a bit look-at-me and Hyundai is going to with no design awards for its interiors - but you get a proper diff and umpteen drive modes to play around with. You may recall PH had one on fleet, and very well thought of it was, too.
Of course if the i30N really does tickle your fancy, it might be worth holding off for a couple of months with the facelifted version just around the corner. It's a relatively subtle rethink by all accounts (new dual-clutch automatic notwithstanding) but its arrival will surely trigger another gentle slackening of its residuals - and that could see Hyundai's first hot hatch become one of the best value secondhand purchases in the segment.
NC
My pick for yesterday's Six of the Best had a carbon fibre tub; sticking to that theme, today I've gone for something made around a glass reinforced plastic chassis. This Adrenaline Murtaya (yeah, I hadn't heard of it either), has a front subframe in which a throbbing turbocharged flat-four from a GC Subaru Impreza WRX STI is mounted. The front suspension is attached to the frame, while the rear hangs off the tub itself. Sounds racy, right? That's because the Murtaya was an MSA-approved low volume rally car.
This one is said to have 326bhp (331hp), which in something weighing about 900kg, not to mention sat on such a short four-wheel drive base, should make it pretty lively. The claimed 0-62mph time was 4.1 seconds. It's back to basics, but senior, too having been developed by Adrenaline Motorsport back in the noughties. That somewhat helps to dismiss any claims that this is a barn-build kit car, as it admittedly looks from some angles. It's a proper competition design, hence the fitment of a roll bar and lack of anything unnecessary.
The interior, for example, has little more than two seats, a steering wheel and Subaru six-speed manual gearbox lever poking through the transmission tunnel. I spy Porsche brake calipers behind the set of Speedline Turinis, which emphasises the standard of kit present beneath those lightweight panels. Perhaps I've lost it, but for motorsport mad enthusiasts like myself, this four-wheel drive open-top is about as exciting as sub-£20k, motorsport-derived cars can get.
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