Testing, testing

"The competition: where the hell has it all gone?"

- By RICHARD LANE

Fair warning: the next 750 words are going to be about the Porsche 911. Some of the readership thinks we cover this car too liberally, and they're right, if for the wrong reasons. Why that is will soon become clear, but now's your chance to turn over, pretend none of this happened and read about six-pot engines whose pistons don't box.

Still here? Much obliged. I've got 911s on the brain more than usual. It must be a result of a rear-engined diary concertina. In the past few weeks, I've driven RML's Turbo S-based P39 prototype; I've been in Weissach to preview the new hybrid 'dot-two' Turbo S and have my innards torn up during a passenger ride; and I've done 1600 or so miles in the updated Carrera S.

The highlight of this triple-header is hard to call. The RML is a carbonfibre-bodied tip of the hat to the street-legal 911 GT1 Strassenversion, only with 50% more power and a literal tonne of downforce, plus road manners to match a factory-standard 911. It's the answer to a question few are asking, but it is quite cool. Equally, sitting beside Jörg Bergmeister again as he peeled a Turbo S development car into a filthy great slide at 115mph – while asking how my day was going – was also cool. Actually it was absurd. The same ride-along gave a colleague from another well-known mag the shakes, and he races stuff.