Top Gear’s guide to 2011’s GT3 cars

We like GT3 cars. They sound a little bit like the beginning of the apocalypse, pack righteous horsepower and look really cool.

This year, we've seen quite a few carmakers throw their respective wings in the tornado of this ‘gentleman racer' series; a series which features cars most resembling their road car counterparts. Apparently.

See if you can see any resemblance between a hunkered down, shouty and mostly V8-powered Z4 GT3 compared to a 2.5 hair-colouring road variant. Then there's that McLaren...

The wing! Won't someone think of the wing! This Z4 packs BMW's 4.0-litre V8 chucking out 480bhp thanks to a new ECU and power control unit.

Also, have you seen the size of the wing?

The SLS lit up the F1 season this year as the pace car; a sort of disciplinarian father-type collecting misbehaving, highly strung F1 schoolchildren. You will remember it sounded amazing.

Thankfully, the GT3 version ups the ‘sounding amazing' part, and adds, predictably, a ruddy great rear wing, racing brakes, stiffer suspension, bodykit, blah blah blah... just listen to it here.

Mercedes SLS GT3

1,200kg, 4.0-litre 480bhp engine, a wider track, adjustable suspension and the obligatory GT3 genitalia that is the monster adjustable rear wing: this is the 911 GT3 R, and it succeeds the 911 GT3 Cup S - itself an evolution of the 911 Cup.

Porsche 911 engineers must be knackered. Just sayin'.

Porsche 911 GT3 R

Oh. Yes. This is how McLaren sees its development programme - roll out the MP4-12C road car (above), then win lots of trophies with...

...this, the GT3 version.

McLaren has teamed up with CRS Racing and will contest this GT3 beauty throughout 2011, with team principal Martin Whitmarsh saying "racing is in our blood". Don't forget, the McLaren F1 GTR won the Le Mans 24hrs on its debut...