Road Test: Porsche 911 GTS 2dr PDK

Want a four-wheel drive, naturally aspirated 911? Until the Carrera 4 version of the new ‘991' 911 arrives later this year, this, the old-shape C4 GTS, is your lot.

The GTS, remember, is the 997's greatest-hits compilation album. It uses the Carrera S's 3.8-litre engine bumped up to 408bhp, with the lowered Sports Chassis and a limited-slip rear differential, plus a few shiny black bits to stand you apart from the prole in his boggo Carrera 4S.

The result is every bit as sublime as the rear-wheel-drive GTSs we drove last year. However good the electro-mechanical steering on the new 911, I can't believe it can top this car for mechanical purity.

Hairy-chested men, of course, will snortingly dismiss the four-wheel drive 911 as the softie's choice. But, really. I drove the C4 GTS on a sub-zero winter's day, a ham-fisted buffoon flailing hopefully on icy, leafy back-roads. I emerged 100 per cent not-dead. The percentage would have been rather lower in a RWD sports car.

This is no desperate attempt to flog a final few units from a near-dead platform but a cast-iron classic in the making. Who needs choice when your sole option is as good as this?