New Porsche 911 R – 493bhp of naturally-aspirated flat-six goodness

The Porsche 911 R has been revealed at the Geneva Motor Show as a ‘Pure’ 911, devoid of many trinkets and with a manual gearbox and no turbos.

Porsche purists have long bemoaned the ever increasing titivation of the 911, its new turbo engines and its lack of a manual gerabox. So this, the new Porsche 911 R, should be right up their street.

Costing £136,901 in the UK, Porsche are to build 991 911 Rs globally, and that probably won’t be enough to satisfy demand so you could be grabbing a new Porsche with little or no depreciation even remotely imminent.

In many ways the 911 R is a GT3 RS, but a GT3 RS devoid of the ‘flash’ Aero stuff, smaller wheels and tyres, a new six-speed manual gearbox and a look that shouts ‘Classic’ rather than look how flash I am.

The 4.0 litre naturally-aspirated flat-six engine delivers 493bhp and 339lb/ft of torque, enough to propel the 911 R to 62mph in 3.8 seconds and on to 201mph.

There’s also a limited slip diff and rear wheel steering as standard, lightweight aluminium wheels, carbon fibre front wings and bumpers, Ceramic brakes and no fixed rear wing. It all adds up to a 911 that has a dry weight of just 1250kg.

Available in silver or white – with red or green stripes if you wish – you can even have matt silver wheels to mimic 911s of old, and the interior is just for two, hound’s tooth fabric inserts on the seats, no Air Con and not even a radio. But it sounds delicious.

The new Porsche 911 R is already available to order from Porsche’s UK dealers, just as long as you have the very specific £136,901 to hand.