2014 has been over for a month, but the year couldn’t have truly been considered finished until “Chris Harris On Cars” had his piece to say about the year’s best cars.
It’s somewhat strange that a “Car of the Year” show wouldn’t actually pick a winner. In this video, Mr. Harris doesn’t pick a victor, instead he really only invited victors. The title really should be cars of the year, because they are all winners. Harris did mention that he also invited McLaren’s P1 to the competition, and they tried to get a car to Portugal for the week, but didn’t quite make it. That was a huge missed opportunity to have a P1 Vs. 918 head to head battle, which would have been awesome to the third degree. No matter, though, because we still got some excellent video in this test. There is everything you’ve come to expect from a Harris video, beautiful scenery, gorgeous cars, lurid drifting slides, long slow-motion shots, and lots of well-crafted prose in the dulcet tones of Chris’ voice.
So, lets get down to the invitees. Porsche was asked to bring their 918 Spyder and 991 GT3 to the test and politely obliged. Ferrari had their F12 and 458 Speciale on hand. BMW’s new M4, Aston Martin’s V12 Vantage S, and Renault’s 275 Trophy R. That’s a pretty comprehensive list of some amazing sports cars. I’d give almost anything to have an opportunity to drive them around the beautiful Portimao circuit for a week. Lucky guy, that Harris chap.
The 918 Spyder is the first car up to be reviewed. In talking about the 918, Chris seemingly can’t keep himself from shouting. He’s as excited as a young child on their first visit to Toys R Us. He’s wide eyed and excitable throughout this section of the film, and you can tell the 918 is one of his favorites among the favorites. Harris has been driving 918s since before they were in production, including a prototype, and some very early production pieces. He says the car has gotten better and better, becoming a fully integrated machine with much better developed systems. He talks about something he calls “silent torque”, and even jokingly chastises Marc Lieb for driving this car so quickly at the Nordschliefe.
The 991 GT3 has been featured in literally dozens of ‘car of the year’ tests in 2014, and it won a few of them. Harris, as we said, doesn’t pick a single winner in this test, but he does mention that if he had to pick a best of the best, this one would be in with a shout. He talks about the agility afforded by the four-wheel-steering. He shouts about the revs with an emphatic “NINE THOUSAND RPM, BABY!” It’s a livable car, that could be pushed into daily duty, but it absolutely comes alive on a fast back road or a day at the circuit. The 991 GT3 is all about potential.
If you’re only interested in watching the Porsche bits of the video, you can watch the 918 by skipping to 2:08 and watching through 9:35, and the 991 GT3 section can be seen from 19:24 through 24:02.
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