Porsche GT2

Porsche GT2 $180,665

Until Porsche builds the Carrera GT (a late-2003 model with an open cockpit and a six-liter V-10 engine that will produce 558 horsepower), you'll have to make due with the GT2, for now the fastest street-legal Porsche on earth.

The GT2 is essentially a Porsche 911 Turbo with every gram of fat stripped out of it (220 pounds were deleted by cutting out items like the rear jump seats and the sunroof, and by using lighter materials like ceramic brake discs rather than metallic ones). The GT2 also gets 456 horsepower (the 911 Turbo produces 415 hp), thanks to increased turbo boost and larger intercoolers for the turbos.

Lighter and more powerful, the GT2 is now certainly faster, clocking nearly the same acceleration rate to 60 mph as the far more expensive Murciélago (0-62 mph--0-100 kilometers per hour--in about four seconds), and can achieve a top speed of 195 mph.

One thing that you can't do is assume that the GT2 will be quite as obedient as four-wheel drive 911s, because this Porsche only has rear-wheel drive, albeit with a highly optimized suspension. That means that some of that dreaded rearward rotation is bound to surface when you push this 911 to the nth degree on a racetrack, and you'd better learn where the limits are very gradually.

Of course, Porsche engineers have made sure that you'll just about be unable to unstick the GT2's tail end during a day drive on your favorite street, thanks to a fierce suspension layout.

The GT2 sits on the 911 Turbo chassis but has been lowered almost a full inch--and all springs, bearings and shocks have been made stiffer and stouter--to accept racing modifications should the driver opt for them. Front struts are adjustable for racing, and the strut support mounts also allow wheel camber adjustments to allow for use of racing tires. Similar modifications exist at the rear suspension, again for optimized racing potential.

If you get the feeling that the GT2 would be happiest on the track, you're right. Although you could certainly drive this car daily, and you'd have better visibility than in a lot of supercars, it would be rough on the molars.