World around Porsche is renowned to make what is the benchmark for sportscars. The Porsche 911 was Dr. Ferdinand Porsche’s idea of an ideal sportscars and it took little time for the world to concur with him. From being a jumped up VW Beetle to being one of the sharpest cars one can buy, the 911 has come a long way since. We were thrown an opportunity by the gracious Bren Garage to shoot a car from his expansive collection of the most coveted supercars, it took us precisely 3 seconds to pick the GT2 RS. Now why the GT2 and not the likes of the 458 Speciale and the Aventador SVJ? Well, the idea was simple, it was to get two hardcore Porsche purists with the first and the last cars of the 991 Generation of the 911. We were joined in by a man who breathes Porsche - Ashwin Mahendran and his squeaky clean Porsche 911 Carrera S. Both Guards Red, both from the 991 generation and most importantly, both driven by two of the most hardcore Porsche enthusiasts we have had the good fortune to know! With both cars parked adjacent to each other and with our man Simar Singh Basant doing his thing with the camera, it was a treat just to stand there and stare at these two cars together. So similar yet poles apart!
 

Here’s the thing about Porsche, half the supercar enthusiasts don’t understand one and the ones who do, there is no ways you can convince them to place their bets on anything apart from a Porsche. The 911 has over 20 variants, each based on the same structure yet distinct from each other. If you want to drive your 911 while the sun shines on you, you could get the 911 Cabriolet and if that is too much sun then you could get a Carrera with a sunroof and then again, if that is too little sun, then you could get a 911 targa which hits the sweet spot between a sunroof and a Cabrio with that targa top. And once you’ve found the 911 which lets the right amount of sun on your head, you still could choose to drive a 911 which slides its tail out easily with the ‘regular’ targa or get AWD grip with the targa 4S. Confusing right? Well, that’s the 911 lineup for you in a nutshell, there is something for everyone. You could have a 911 Carrera S in your garage as a daily alongside a GT2 RS as a weekend weapon and they’d still be cars distinct enough to never be monotonous.

Now you may ask why burden yourself with the hassle of choosing between so many variants while you could just go get a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. Well, for starters, there is no competition for the 911 when it comes to value for money. They aren’t cheap by any means, but the amount of car you get for that much money is pretty much peerless. The 911s may even lack the flair and flamboyance that the Italians score big on but for a driving enthusiast, that is a little of a concern. In fact, while a Lamborghini may get you all the chicks at the nightclub, you are more likely to have a dude come knocking at the window of your 911 asking you why did you opt for the PCCBs and didn’t stick with the standard steel brakes and then snowballing into an in-depth conversation about all the P abbreviations! That’s the thing about Porsche, it has carved its niche while being fundamentally flawed with the engine stuck in its ass yet excelling at everything it does. The fan following may be relatively smaller but the kind of passion that exists for this brand is something palpable.

Passion brings us to these two gentlemen here, both hard core 911 nuts with two very different 911s. Both these cars are spotlessly clean but don’t let that deceive you into believing that they are stowed away and babied! The Carrera S serves as Ashwin’s daily driver while Bren Garage’s GT2 has seen quite a few trackdays already despite being just a few months old. As they unanimously agree, you cannot see a 911 just parked up in your garage. Every time you see it, you just want to get out and drive it!

The two cars we have here make quite a special duo. In the wake of 992 generation launch, the Carrera S and the GT2 RS were the first and last ones of the 991 Generation cars. It is amazing how similar yet look completely different. Both painted Guards Red, the shade looks tad a bit darker on the GT2 RS, presumably owing to the thinner layer of paint that goes on the car to shave the weight while all that contrasting carbon even plays tricks on your brain making the colour appear slightly darker. These cars here are all about balance. They have their engine stuck up the wrong end, which on paper is a complete disaster. But one go in any 911 will make you lose faith in physics and make you worship the Germans.

The Carrera S develops 395hp, which by today’s standards is fairly modest with supercars pushing upwards of 700hp but despite that, the Carrera S is a handful to drive. And handful in the right sense, it pulls out it’s tail easily and will dance around in the wet. Spiky enough to keep your attention glued yet not too spiky to make you think twice before driving the car. It is the kind of car that makes you want to call in sick at work and blast off into the oblivion with just you and the car. They say that you haven’t really enjoyed driving unless you have driven a Carrera spiritedly and there is absolutely no two ways about it. Little show and all go, the Carrera S is ‘the’ car for a driving enthusiast which can do it all — from office runs to grocery shopping to cross country runs. All with equal finesse, while making you thank yourself for putting your money down on this car at every turn of the wheel!
 

Coming to the GT2 RS, the fact that it was a holder of the VW Group’s rolling trophy of the fastest car around the Nurburgring is well known. Well, the car is much more than just that! Parked next to the Carrera S, the GT2 RS looks every bit the hardcore race car that it is. Wider body to house that twin-turbo flat 6 making close to 700 horses, wider front track which aids in better handling and a dinner table for a wing all scream racecar. This particular car was spec'd with the Weissach Package which shaves off weight with lashing of carbon all over the car to suit the owner’s track usage. This is the pinnacle of Porsche’s motorsport DNA embedded into a car that can possibly also be driven on the street. In other words, for somebody who wants the best of the best from Porsche and also wants it to be road legal, then this is as good as it can be. For the GT2 RS, it’s natural habitat is the racetrack. If the PDK is the industry-leading transmission, then the PDK Sport transmission is from another world, shifting from one gear to the next in less time than it would take for you to blink your eye. Body construction is also taken to the next level with this beast, with the roof made of magnesium, the front and rear wings and boot lid made of carbon fibre, lightweight polyurethane dominates the front and rear aprons and it sports a titanium exhaust with centre locking wheels to top it all off. With all that power going to the rear wheels, it is quite safe to say that this car is no joke, and it certainly is not for the faint-hearted. And it fully looks its part! 

Seeing these two cars side by side is the realisation of a dream for a Porschephile. The way in which they are similar yet so different is something that needs to be experienced in person. The sounds, the proportions and the DNA of both these cars are a testimony of Germany’s finest engineering. The cars are built like tanks, they could run six digits on the odo without a hiccup and still keep wanting more. That is what makes a Porsche special, it is amazing how usable they are and yet relentlessly reward your senses with each drive. This is the kind of car you’d want to pass down to your kids as an heirloom and both, Bren Garage and Ashwin Mahendran agree with us on this! We would like to thank them for having made this duo possible and for patiently allowing us to shoot their cars. Knowing both these gentlemen, we hope to do another story some half a century later when these two cars passed down in their family!
And who was the star of the show? Oh well, it has to be Odin — Bren Garage’s affable Husky who took lesser time to worm into our hearts than the 911 takes to knock a 100!