Flaunting a huge rear wing, giant air intakes, and fender-filling wheels and tires, there’s no mistaking the 911 GT3 for anything but the track-ready racer it is. Its 500-hp 4.0-liter flat-six howls to a 9000-rpm redline; the racier RS model makes 520 hp. Both models drive the rear wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The non-RS GT3 gets a six-speed manual option. Acceleration is eyeball-peeling, grip is prodigious, and exterior paint colors are extroverted to say the least.

Depending on your perspective, the RS engine gets a 20-hp boost compared to the standard 911 GT3 or the GT3 gets a 20-hp haircut compared to the RS. The engines are almost identical. Both receive new pistons and rings, a solid valvetrain with shims for valve-clearance compensation (in place of hydraulic adjustment), a stiffer crankshaft with larger main bearings, wider and thicker connecting-rod bearings, and plasma-coated cylinder liners. Compared with the last RS, Porsche also bumped up the compression ratio, from 12.9:1 to 13.3:1. The 20-hp gap between the current GT3 and the GT3 RS comes down to electronics and a different exhaust system.