Former BBC TopGear trio Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May's brand new Amazon Prime show The Grand Tour completed airing its first four episodes. It got a dream debut with a face-off between the ultimate hyper cars - The Porsche 918, the McLaren P1 and the Ferrari LaFerrari. The second episode wasn't great as it received flak from viewers for less number of cars and the third instalment returned to its car show genes with a tour of Italy in Aston Martin DB11, Rolls-Royce Dawn and the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat.
In its fourth instalment named Enviro-mental, the show is a mixed bag. It starts off with the review of Porsche 911 GT3 RS and BMW M4 GTS. The show displays Clarkson, Hammond and May's eco-friendly cars made out of animal bones, plants and mud, respectively. The show also showcases Audi TT Mk1, in which Hammond has been squeezed in. Here are the details of the cars showcased in The Grand Tour episode 4.
Porsche 911 GT3 RS
The Porsche 911 GT3 RS is the high performance version of the Porsche 911 sports car primarily intended for racing. Porsche launched the RS version of the 991 GT3 at the Geneva Motor Show in 2015. It has been priced at USD 175,900 (approximately Rs 1.18 crore).
In addition to the regular 911 GT3, the RS version boasts of roof made from magnesium. The interior features full bucket seats based on the carbon seats of the 918 Spyder. The cabin also comes with carbon-fibre inserts, lightweight door handles and the Club Sport Package as standard. The package includes a bolted-on roll cage behind the front seats, a battery master switch, six-point safety harness for the driver and fire extinguisher.
The sports car is powered by a 4.0-litre flat-six engine that delivers 500bhp and a torque of 460Nm mated to seven-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) transmission as standard. The car requires only 3.3 seconds sprinting 100kmph, that's 0.7 seconds faster than its predecessor. At The Grand Tour's Eboladrome test track it registers lap time of 1.20.4 seconds
BMW M4 GTS
BMW introduced the M4 GTS concept in August 2015 at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. The German carmaker launched production-spec track-focused version in 2016 and it has been limited to 700 units with a price tag of USD 133,205 (approximately Rs 8.98 lakh). The M4 GTS is considered as the fastest BMW ever and is also the most thrilling M car for a generation.
The performance sedan is powered by the same 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six engine that also does duty in the regular M4, but the power has been raised to 493bhp with the aid of water injection system. In addition to the power boost, the M4 GTS is 27kg lighter than the regular M4. The engine is mated to a seven-speed DCT transmission and the sedan requires only 3.8 seconds passing 100kmph speed before hitting top speed of 305kmph. At the Eboladrome, it recorded a lap time of 1:22.4 seconds.
