Is Porsche working on a very special 911 R?

Internet rumours are best approached with caution. Just ask any celebrity who’s suffered a stint in the Sidebar of Shame. But this one we really, really like, and is worth a little rumination.

The Porsche 911 R was a rather wonderful old motorsport special from the late 1960s, and word is circulating from a number of sources online that there’s another one coming, perhaps next year. And it sounds like a road-legal pick’n’mix of all the Porsche bits we really want.

Its potential spec has us positively salivating: an engine related to the 469bhp 3.8-litre naturally aspirated flat-six found in the 991-generation GT3 (pictured), driving the rear wheels, and – get this – operated via a manual gearbox as opposed to the GT3’s paddleshift transmission.

The delicious rumours don’t stop there: while the potential 911 R is said have gorgeous dished alloys like the GT3, the body will be shorn of big wings, and there could even be skinnier tyres, which would helpfully lower the sky-high limits now associated with motorsport-derived 911s.

While we’re a sucker for some outrageous aero, the idea of a real wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing spec 911 – and one that’s more engaging at road speeds, and easier to have fun in – has us totting up the value of our non-vital organs as we type.

The hearsay suggests a limited run of around 600 cars, though expect them to cost much money. A ‘normal’ GT3 is £100,000, don’t forget.

Porsche is keeping predictably schtum, a spokesman telling us the company “never comments on possible future products”.

Like we say, rumours. Very much unconfirmed ones. But crikey, do we hope they’re true…