2000 Porsche 996.1 911 GT3 (SOLD)

The 911 GT1 homologation special of 1996 was fully water cooled, and it was this car’s engine that would form the basis of the bombproof iconic M96/72 Mezger engine, first seen wedged into the rear of the 996 GT3 when it was unveiled at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show.

“Fire up the engine and listen to the rattles and clatter, the uneven, lumpy idle and jagged rise and fall of revs. There’s only one car that’ll make these familiar sounds – a Porsche 911. And a racing 911 at that,” wrote Robinson. Its 265kW might well be eclipsed by modern hot hatches but the 996 GT3’s hardcore bloodline wasn’t hard to trace. “Push, really push, using second out of bends and you can balance the GT3 on the throttle. The transition to oversteer is soft, even if the speeds are not, for the natural poise of the chassis and the limitless torque mean the wheel and throttle can be worked together to hold a slide. And there’s no electronic device to restrain the engine, just a mechanically variable limited-slip differential that gives up to 40 percent power distribution under power and 60 percent on the overrun,” he noted.