"So I’m doing a fast lap in a Ferrari 599," says Walter Rohrl. "We had one in for benchmarking purposes. I saw a car up ahead, and as I got closer, I could see it was another 599. He over steered, then ran wide, and I passed him.
"Anyway, as I was cooling down, this other 599 pulled level, the window went down, and the driver said, 'You bastard! You beat me round here in a Ferrari!' It was Michael Schumacher ...”
Rohrl unfolds his almost comically long arms and laughs. No doubt about it, he is the reigning king of the Nurburgring. For the record, he did a 7m 59s in the 599. Which is effing quick. But Porsche’s chief test driver is not here today to talk Ferrari. Today is about the new GT2, the most powerful road-going 911 ever. It has 523bhp, 679Nm, accelerates from 0-100kph in 3.7secs, to 160kph in 7.4, and tops out at 326kph, the fastest 911 ever. It costs Rs 1.04 crore, and Porsche reckons the GT2 is the most highly evolved 911 yet. Walter drove it round the Nordschleife in 7m 32s.
"I passed 11 cars while I set that time," he says, folding his arms again.
Rohrl, as anyone who's had the privilege of sitting beside him in a car will arrest, is special. With robotic precision and zero apparent effort, he makes cars go enormously fast. But he's also utterly devoid of vanity, he just gets on with it.
The 911’s like that too. BMW's marketing wonks may have coined the line, but here surely is the ultimate driving 'machine.' Forty-odd years since it arrived, the 911 fetches up in 2007 as the best performance car in the world.
The tricky question is, which one? The Carrera S is nice, and good value, but not special enough. Turbo cabrio? Call the taste police, please. So really it's between the Turbo, the GT3 and now the GT2. The newest addition is rear-wheel drive and is twin-turbocharged, but is it a more interactive Turbo or a more powerful GT3? As we're about to discover, the differences between them are more profound than you'd imagine.
Porsche and Ferrari are locked in a battle for engineering supremacy, but this car - and the 430 Scuderia - confirm that the goalposts have now been moved so far, you need a telescope to see them. It uses the same bodyshell and 3.6-litre horizontally opposed engine as the turbo, but beyond that, the detail gets very detailed indeed.
Most of the effort has gone on optimising the turbo charging tech. Anyone who's experienced the regular turbo's response - it's like being kicked in the back by the world's angriest donkey - will wonder what could possibly be improved. Lots, apparently. As before, there's a pair of turbochargers but there's a bigger compressor wheel, and re-profiled rotor blades improve air flow to the turbine.
Look closely at the base of the GT2's artful rear wing, and you'll notice two ram charge air intakes that force more air in at a higher pressure. The turbos operate at a maximum charge pressure of 1.4bar, 0.4 more than the existing Turbo.
Then there's the new intake system, which uses cooler expanding air rather than hotter compressed air to ignite the fuel-air mixture, which optimises the process (Porsche claims this is a world first). Under-pressure, over-pressure, resonance, oscillation ... it's all going on in here. This fancy intake set-up is matched by an equally impressive exhaust system: the silencer and pipes are made of titanium. Why? Because it's more durable, allows for better heat dissipation, and is 50 per cent lighter than stainless steel.
There's dry sump lubrication, and a limited slip diff offering moderate lock-up, given that traction - even in a 911 this powerful- won't be a problem. In the dry, at least.
At 1,440kg, it's 145kg lighter than the Turbo, largely due to the removal of the front drive-train, an aluminium rear sub-frame, and standard-fit ceramic brakes. Oh, and carbon-fibre race seats.
There are lots of subtle bodywork refinements. The front spoiler is unique to the GT2, funneling air to three radiators, and there's even an extra cooler for the gearbox oil. The intakes in the rear wheel arches keep the intercoolers happy, while the new slats around the rear end help dissipate heat from the engine and exhaust.
Experts in aero- and thermodynamics would love it; suffice to say the drag coefficient has been reduced to 0.32, and Porsche makes big claims for the down force on the front and rear axles. A 320kph Porsche with a wandering front end would be as good as a chocolate sunbed, after all.
In the world of the 911 fancier, the GT2 is the 'Widow maker.' Even the presence of a world-class stability system can't dispel the mythology that clings to it. Though it's fairly standard 997 inside (Alcantara trim, body-colour seatbelts, no rear seats), the 997-era GT2 still inspires shock and awe. Twin turbos, rear drive, 523bhp, semi-slick Michelin Pilot Sport Cup ... the words leave little vapour trails as they whoosh around your brain.
And that's not all. Before you get in, you find yourself watching the skies for brooding cloud formations, like some sort of medieval soothsayer. The bottom line is, I'm nervous.
But as our convoy bumbles its way out of the cat park, the jitters evaporate. The previous GT2 would tramline on a glass-topped billiard table, but the new one is incredibly well-behaved. Porsche's active damping system has been re-calibrated for extra firmness - but over ridges that would have bounced its predecessor into a field, the new cat is compliant and manageable. Given the forces at work, the controls are a doddle to use. The clutch is easy, the brakes nicely modulated, the gearshift demanding but not hard. The final drive ratio is the same as the Turbo's and GT3's, and the three contenders settle into a relaxed lope through the countryside. So much for the 'widow maker’...
Then I get bored, drop it into second and nail the throttle. Good God. Keep it nailed and the GT2 outpaces your brain's ability to keep up.
The regular Turbo will tackle corners at a speed that defies belief It's so competent that it's almost boring. Boredom is not an emotion you will encounter in the GT2. Like its lesser brothers, it has Porsche's stability management system, which monitors vertical and lateral loads, traction, and brake force distribution. On this cat, you can disable it in three stages, but it's so well calibrated, you'd have to be nuts to drive without it on the road. Even in damp conditions, the GT2 is obscenely good. Perhaps too intimidating for any adjustability, but who adjusts a 523bhp 911?
This is the classic 911 experience on fast forward: ultra-high performance, Herculean traction out of corners, immense brakes. It's Carrera GT fast but much better behaved. It should be the One.
But it isn't. The GT3 is. And it's instructive to drive them side-by-side. No kidding, 20 seconds in the less powerful cat do it. After 30 minutes, it gets sort of spiritual. The GT3 is very special indeed.
On this unfamiliar road, the GT3 is so good it's spooky; brake, steer, change gear, accelerate - it breaks the process down into such clear, simple but devastating chunks that it's almost easy. Like Hendrix on the guitar or Miles Davis on the horn, there's an instinctive genius at work here.
On which musical note, it also sounds much better than the GT2 or Turbo. Forced induction is fun, but the normally aspirated GT3 revs from 4,000rpm to a Wagnerian climax.
It's also more linear. Despite Porsche's best efforts, the GT2 still suffers lag. Not much, true, but you have to time your inputs nonetheless. The GT3 just goes, gives you exactly the right amount to work with and against. Assuming you buy into the basic 911 credo - the propulsive rear end, the absence of weight at the front then this is the best. OK, it's not as fast as the GT2, but 96mph in 4.3secs and 307kph all-out is the sort of not-as-fast you can live with.
So, does that leave the Turbo in between, the perfect solution? As the everyday proposition it was designed to be, yes. Its wet-weather pace is extraordinary, and it has more grip than you will ever need. It's difficult to fault. But you have to drive it like an absolute lunatic to really feel it, and no matter how fast you go round a corner or how late you brake, it'll cope. It's almost inhuman but, yes, probably the ultimate driving ‘machine’.
The ultimate 911, however, is the one that remembers to put the driver centre-stage. And, it’s the GT3.