The car, you may recall, is Porsche’s homage not only to its 911-based Group 5 racer of the late 1970s, but its entire racing history, hence the rear lights being styled on those from the 919 Hybrid, the wing mirrors coming from the 911 RSR race car and the titanium exhausts recalling those of the 1968 908. Its powertrain is the same in all bar detail to that of the GT2 RS race car, but its chassis, with race suspension, slick tyres and high downforce bodywork, is very different.
It helps if you turn off the traction control before you start: it makes the car look good if it erupts forward towing a plume of incinerated Michelin, but it also makes you feel less like a stone dispatched from a catapult. With that power, an engine over the rear wheels and those slicks, the 935 is ridiculously, disconcertingly quick off the line. Spinning those tyres actually calms the experience down quite a lot.
Until that is you change up and, because their surfaces are now warmer, the tyres bite. Then you’re off in a blur of hands, snatched breaths and muffled expletives. Because the front tyres are still cold you still have to be quite careful through the corners and even when you are it still understeers a bit. But if you’ve driven cars on slicks here before, you’re ready for that.