Side-by-side, from a rolling start, the 964 is never far off the 997’s sexy rear

As the 964RS rolls into view and into the glamorous Eppco petrol station, followed by the GT3RS, it isn’t the white bewinged one that I favour even before I get behind the wheel of either car. It’s the calm-looking red one. The air-cooled one.

‘Air-cooled’ today, however, is at bit of an irony; there doesn’t seem to be any cool air. It’s boiling, and, admiring the 964 in our ‘enchanting’ meeting point both Bassam and photographer Alejandro are instantly liking the 17-inch magnesium wheels, the way it sits squat to the ground and its shape, which is unspoilt by any modern day aero work.

It isn’t all hot air though (excuse the pun). Get inside and you’ll see the simplicity: the light doors, carbon fibre seats, manual windows and straps for door handles. All in the name of extreme weight saving. There isn’t even an interior light. It’s so organic and so focused that it makes the GT3RS look plush in comparison. It certainly doesn’t try to impress. But make no mistake, it is hard – Vin Diesel hard.

On the long and open roads in Swaydan that we used as our location (E44 from dubai, left onto E55), the 964RS was uncompromising, jarring your innards and crushing your spine. In creating the RS, Porsche up-rated the dampers and springs over the 964 Carrera 2 and lowered the car by 40mm. In essence, the 964RS was based on the Carrera Cup series and, although it was 20 years later, it was made in the same vane as the pure 2.7RS of the ‘70s. It’s such a track-focused machine that it wasn’t sold in the US at the time because the American importer considered it too hardcore. The Americans subsequently got a softer version of the car.

The GT3RS is just as firm. The main difference is, where the 964 crashes over every bump and into every hole, the 997 is more compliant over the worst road surfaces. Try to push things beyond your comfort zone and the distinction is even more apparent. As Alan McGovern (who co-owns the older car with his son Phil) says, ‘the GT3RS is a road car for the track; but the 964RS is a race car for the road’. That’s why, with no huge rear wing and no gaping air intakes, the 964RS is a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

And a tough wolf at that. The unassisted steering is so heavy you need arms the size of a sumo wrestler’s thighs to get it turning at speeds below 60kph, and even above that, getting the nose to point into the apex when you’re going quickly is not a straightforward task. You need several stabs and perhaps a few weeks of practise before you can be certain the nose will face the way you want it to first time out as you enter a corner. It certainly makes life busy at the wheel when you’re trying to get used to it.

Don’t mistake that as the 964RS being an old dog though; it still has its old tricks up its sleeve. At 1,230kg, it’s 145kg lighter than the GT3RS, has a lightweight single mass flywheel that weighs 5.4kg for better throttle response and is more than eager to show you what it’s made of. Around the bends it still grips and corners flat and the harder you push it, the more rewarding the experience becomes, because it demands your attention, demands that you work at it.

Initially, you feel a bit apprehensive, aware that that air cooled engine could at any point start doing its impression of an antique Grandfather Clock hand and begin swinging from side to side if you momentarily divert your attention – especially as the throttle response is so instant that a small prod gives a boost of extra rpm and eager shove from behind.

Slowly but gradually I reprogram my mind until I get enough confidence to stop it controlling me and I start controlling it. The trick, I find, is to hustle it, but carefully. Steer it with vigour, but don’t overstep the mark; take it to its outer limits, but keep your concentration up. The solid, direct brakes and the live throttle response help in this respect. You sense the car’s behaviour on the limit. Whether you can control it when you get there is another question. The 964RS’s ethos is a simple one: not prepared to go to the edge? Don’t bother stepping in.

But do. If only to appreciate that old 911 feel of minimalism. The lack of air conditioning can feel like a soft form of torture in the heat of a May day, but the floor-hinged pedals and the old school flat-six note are magic. Its vocals are somewhere between a growl and a purr. It’s a sheer pleasure to listen to, and perhaps even better to experience going flat out, when it develops a certain gruffness that’s somehow filtered out in modern water-cooled Porsches.

When you do reach the second half of the rev range, the 964RS shows its grunt. It may look like your dad once owned it, but on a straight road, side-by-side with the GT3RS, from a rolling start of about 50kph, the power-to-weight ratio gap of 86bhp/tonne (211bhp/tonne compared to 297bhp/tonne) sounds bigger than the actual result on the road. It doesn’t let up in any gear. It’s down by 1.1sec on the 0-100kph dash and down by 50kph at v-max, but this 964RS, with 100,000km on the clock, is never far off the GT3RS’s sexy rear. If this car ever ends up in a Classifieds section, I think the words ‘As good as new’ will be an accurate description.

In terms of a lap time, well, unfortunately we didn’t have a racetrack to play on with these two to see the exact gap 18 years of engineering and several generations of 911 have made, but it has to be said that much of it would depend on the driver. Driving the 964RS fast isn’t an easy task to master, you have to stay alert and focus on your inputs. But given the right hands (certainly not mine), it would dance.

With the GT3RS, any hands will do. As soon as I inserted modern key into modern ignition and headed off towards Suwaydan from Dubai, everything gelled together. Every single moving part has a precise, mechanical feel with just the right amount of resistance. With the dampers set to Sport mode, it’s simply motoring nirvana as the detailed information comes at you from every angle and every point of contact: ears, palms, fingertips, feet, buttocks, coccyx. You don’t need to worry about power delivery or where the limit is, you just drive.

‘One thing remains apparent: the 964RS doesn’t dissapoint even 18 years on’

Where the 964 made its rear known to you at almost every turn, the 997 feels like it keeps its backside closer to the driver. The whole car moves as one scalpel-sharp tool and not with the engine  following somewhere behind you, as is sometimes the case in the 964. It’s only until you reach speeds that you should really be saving for a closed track (not often – those Michelin Pilot Sport Cups deliver masses of grip) that it begins to make itself known. It’s almost as if the GT3RS has been to ballet school.

Trouble is, I sometimes get the feeling that, alongside the 964RS, the GT3RS could almost be a bit too easy to handle. Everything happens so swiftly, so telepathically, that after a while you almost don’t notice how you’ve just gone from one point to another with such precision and alacrity – certainly not something that can be said for the 964.

To give you an idea of what the old RS demands of you, you just have to make a note of Allan’s son’s experience of the car. ‘You have to get over the feeling that the car is going to bite you,’ says Phil, who’s owned this red homologation special for several years. ‘It took 18 months for me to be able to drive this car at 110%.’ If you bear in mind that Phil’s experience includes drag racing, piloting Radicals and a touring car around the Dubai Autodrome , it certainly gives you some perspective.

In truth, we really need to put the two Rennsports on a track to get the full picture. However, after this day, one thing remains apparent: the 964RS doesn’t disappoint even 18 years on. There are many cars today – newer than the 964 and in the same power range – that cannot achieve half of what this car is capable of in terms of performance and driver involvement. Modern times somehow seem to dictate a pattern whereby the driver is no longer an integral part of getting the most out of a car. The 964RS seems to be the antithesis of that trend. For that, it gets our maximum respect.

A big thank you to Phil and Alan McGovern for bringing their 964RS, and also to Frederick Gaillard for the loan of his 997 GT3RS.

	964 RS	997 GT3 RS
Engine	Flat-six	Flat-six
Location	Rear, longitudinal	Rear, longitudinal
Displacement	3600cc	3600cc
Max power	260bhp @ 6100rpm	409bhp @ 7600rpm
Max torque	227lb ft@ 5000rpm	298lb ft @ 5500rpm
Transmission	Five-speed manual, rear-wheel drive ZF limited slif differential	Six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive, limited-slip differential, TC
Weight (kerb)	1230kg	1375kg
Power-to-weight	211bhp/ton	302bhp/ton
0-100kph	5.4sec	4.2sec (claimed)
Top speed	261kph	310kph (claimed)
Basic price	$ 102,000 (in 1991)	$ 130,000