Chris Harris fans know that the Top Gear host has a bit of a Porsche 911 fetish and even bought the sought-after GT3 RS 4.0 a few years ago. Which he parted with (for a profit, we guess…) and moved on to a Ferrari 599 GTB, which… etc etc.
As a result, we’ve been anxiously waiting for Harris’s review of the brand new Porsche 911 R and it’s finally here, in the form of a comparison video against the Aston Martin V12 Vantage S. While the cars are dramatically different, they both serve as the most driver focused models offered by their respective firms, thanks largely to their manual transmissions.
The Aston is likely to prove the final naturally-aspirated V12 model from the automaker with a traditional stick-shift, meaning it’s importance cannot be underestimated. The 911 R, on the other hand, comes on the back of customer outrage at Weissach for killing off the manual box for its Porsche Motorsport-developed 911s, resulting in a stripped-back GT3 RS with six gears, less flashy bodywork and even more thrills.
According to Harris, one of these two cars is a “master class” and is “one of the standout cars of the past decade”. Can you guess which is which?