FOCUSSED, poised, blisteringly quick, even reasonably comfortable - that's the latest scorching sportster from Porsche and we should expect nothing less.

To me, the Cayman R makes nonsense of buying a 911, but then, the standard Cayman is so good that it too gives the 911 more than a run for its money.

Porsche has added an extra 10 bhp to the Cayman S engine for the R, but that's not where its secret lies.

This car tries to do what I and a few lads from the village realized many years ago - lighten up!

If you can reduce weight in any car, given the same amount of power, there's less to lug about and it must be quicker.

So Porsche's engineers have stripped the Cayman R down to much more like bare essentials.

It's 55kilos lighter than the S because standard equipment no longer includes air conditioning, or a stereo system, or cup holders.

Even the interior door handles have been replaced with fabric pulls - which are actually the only bad thing about the car because they don't work too well.

You can add all the missing items from the extra list of course but that would defeat the object, now wouldn't it.

Think about those 55kilos. That's an extra small person, or 55 bags of sugar taken out of the car.

Stereo - Pshaw! Air con - who needs it?

So its lighter and its got more power, but its also 20mm lower than its sibling and the chassis has been modified to give even better handling and roadholding.

The resulting light weight suspension has anti-roll bars front and rear and dampers tuned so that they still give decent comfort.

This all means that there is virtually no roll no matter how hard to push it through the corners.

The new model was launched at the home of the British Grand Prix, Silverstone, where tucked away behind the stands at the far side of the track, the Porsche Experience has its own fabulous handling circuit and low grip circle.

This is where new Porsche owners should ALL go to find out just how good their cars are, with instruction from current and former racing drivers who really know their onions.

I drove both six speed manual and seven speed twin clutch PDK automatic versions on two different tracks and out on the open road.

The agility and handling simply have to be experienced to be believed and can only be safely put to the test on a circuit.

This car is truly awesome. That's an overused word these days but in this case, it is a perfect description. It grips and grips through a series of left, right, left, right bends, completely untroubled by them at ludicrous speeds.

The only limit seems to be your own nerve and as I got to know it, I pushed harder and hard trying to find a weak spot. There isn't one!

The steering is sublime - so full of information I swear it could tell me the colour of the road surface - and of course, the performance, with 330bhp on tap, is electrifying.

It costs £51,728 putting it at the top of the Cayman tree but it's performance is worth every penny. Top speed is 175mph, it will sprint from 0 to 60 in five seconds yet incredibly Porsche claims it will average almost 30 to the gallon with emissions of 228g/km.

Porsche has managed to make it produce that power across a reasonable wide rev range so that it pulls hard from under 2,000 revs, and then when it reaches 4,000 it gets a second wind and reels in the horizon as if it's on the end of a fishing line.

The manual gearbox is excellent with a quick change and even a reasonably light clutch, but the PDK is so quick and smooth that it is my favourite.

On the open road, there is more than enough acceleration for any overtaking manoeuvre, and it is so obviously a Porsche as it looms in other drivers' mirrors that on a dual carriageway, they quickly more over.

For that alone I love this car.

On rougher country roads, the ride is pretty lumpy, and potholes are most certainly to be avoided, but this is a minor detail when considering the permanent grin such a car brings.