To p : With the PDK gearbox, the GT3 has even faster acceleration.
Below: Motorsport-spec centre-lock 20-inch wheels and carbon brakesTHE MOTOR
IS NEARLY
IDENTICAL
T O W H A T
YOU’LL FIND
IN A 911 CUP
RACE CAR
WOW, ASHIQUE LOVES TO DRIVE FAST. NOT THAT
I don’t, but he knows these roads and more importantly
he knows how to overtake. Like a demon. There’s no
hesitation. A gap and he’s gone. No will-it-won’t-it, just a
shriek from the twin exhausts and the Lambo is gone like
lightning. Heads turn, buckets are dropped, buildings
crumble, but I don’t have time to look at the destruction in
his wake.
Half way up to the hills of Wayanad he stops and we swap.
He points out that the Performante is already in full-power
Strada mode and off he goes without so much as giving me
a second to figure out that the Lambo’s window switches
are on the centre console, not the doors. And I can tell
you that not even a GT3 prepares you for the violence that
erupts on full throttle in a Performante. The Porsche is fast
but, God, the Lambo has a shrieking, howling and devilish
turn of speed. It’s like a volcano has erupted. 100kmph? 2.9
seconds. 0-200kmph? 8.9 seconds. Top speed? 325kmph,
that number being purely academic today, but there are
enough straights for the Performante to bang in gear after
gear on the 7-speed twin clutch and launch itself like a
pitbull. And while peak revs are 500rpm short of the GT3’s
9000rpm, the Lambo is a hundred times more brutal, vocalThis, then, is an engineer’s car — a motorsport engineer’s
car. The attention to detail is anal. The front bumper, for
instance, is a kilogram lighter due to a lighter material
and more holes in it to cool the engine. Can’t image a kilo
doing anything for the lap time at Le Mans but little drops
make an ocean, I guess. The rear bumper also uses the
lighter material, so another little drop there. The engine
lid gets new ram air ducts and cooling vents. And to keep
the race cars even more solidly planted down the straights,
the aero is subtly reworked with mods to the underbody,
rear diffuser and vortex generators. The rear spoiler too is
mounted further back and higher to improve downforce by
20 per cent better at the 318kmph top speed.
Not that there’s a Mulsanne straight leading out of
Calicut but Ashique is also right. If you wake up before the
world you realise Kerala has some fantastic driving roads.
And what they lack in width they make up for in surface
and even more so in the variety and stupendousness of the
corners. Kerala is a driver’s paradise, so long as you remove
everybody from the roads. In fact the GT3 has a great
solution to the road width problem — rear-wheel steering
— where below 80kmph it virtually shrinks the wheelbase
making it more agile while above 80kmph the rear wheels
turn in the same direction as the fronts to add to stability.
It makes for a brilliant canvas to attack with that engine,
a naturally aspirated motor (not turbo’d like all new 911s)
that is nearly identical to what you’ll find in a 911 Cup race
car. A motor made by motorsport engineers to go racing!
Does it get any cooler? It displaces four litres, 200cc more
than before, and among the many detail improvements
are hydraulic valve adjusters inside a newly-designed head
that allows the engine to assault 9000rpm while making
an absolutely spectacular sound. It’s a motorsport-y sound
with the snarl and viciousness of a race-prepped engine
but the highlight is the massive sucking of air behind
your shoulders as the motor gulps copious amounts of the
thick, moisture-laden air. And I have to use all 9000rpm in
pursuit of the (ex) Nurburgring lap record holder driven by
the Calicut lap record holder.