Porsche 911 GT1

Lore & Background

With the revival of international sportscar racing in the mid-1990s through the BPR Global GT Series (which then morphed into the FIA GT Championship) Porsche expressed interest in returning to top-level sportscar racing and went about developing its competitor for the GT1 category. Cars in this category were previously heavily modified versions of road cars, such as the McLaren F1 and the Ferrari F40. Porsche originally modified the 993 GT2 into an EVO version and homologated it as a GT1 car, but it proved to be uncompetitive against the other cars in its class.

Despite using the 911 moniker, the car barely had anything in common with the existing 911 at the time, only sharing the front and rear headlamps with the production sports car. However, its frontal chassis is based on the 993-generation 911, while the rear subframe was derived from the 962C Group C prototype along with its water-cooled, twin-turbocharged and intercooled, 4 valves per cylinder 3164 cc flat-six engine fuel fed by Bosch Motronic 5.2 fuel injection, which was longitudinally-mounted in a rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, compared to the rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout of a conventional 911.

The engine generated a power output of about 600 PS. In comparison, the 993 generation 911 GT2, which was otherwise the company's highest-performance vehicle at the time, used an air-cooled engine with only two valves per cylinder. The 911 GT1 made its debut in the BPR Global GT Series (the FIA championship's predecessor) at the Brands Hatch 4 hours, where Hans-Joachim Stuck and Thierry Boutsen won comfortably, although they were racing as an invitational entry and were thus ineligible for points.

They followed up by winning at Spa, and Ralf Kelleners and Emmanuel Collard triumphed for the factory team at Zhuhai. The 1996 911 GT1 clocked at a top speed of exactly 330 km/h on the legendary Mulsanne Straight in the practice sessions of the 1996 Le Mans 24 Hours Race. Towards the end of the 1996 season, Porsche made revisions to the 911 GT1 in preparation for the 1997 season. The front end of the car was revised including new bodywork which featured headlamps that previewed the all-new generation of the (996) Porsche 911 which would be unveiled in 1997. The revised car was known as the 911 GT1 Evo (or Evolution).

Reader's Guide

Regulations for the GT1 category stipulated that to be eligible, a total of 25 cars must be built for road use. Porsche developed two prototype cars, both fully road-legal versions. The first was delivered in early 1996 to the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Urban Development for compliance testing, which it passed. The second prototype vehicle is in the hands of a Bahrain-based private car collector Khalid Abdul Rahim.

These two cars feature 993 style front headlights. The production car - dubbed '911 GT1 Straßenversion' - was a run of approximately 20 units which were built in 1997 and featured 996 style front headlights. The majority of the production model was finished in Arctic Silver or Fern White, but three cars were finished in unique colours: Polar Silver, Indian Red, and Pastel Yellow. A single car - the 911 GT1-98 Straßenversion - was built in 1998 to homologate the all-new racing version under the new FIA regulations.

The engine had to be slightly de-tuned to meet European emissions laws, although its 400 kW at 7,000 rpm and 600 Nm of torque at 4,250 rpm proved to be more than adequate; the car could accelerate to 100 km/h from a standstill in 3.9 seconds on its way to a top speed of 308 km/h. Auto, Motor und Sport tested the street-legal version in 1997 with the following results: 0-50 km/h : 2.1 seconds; 0-100 km/h : 3.9 seconds; 0-130 km/h : 5.4 seconds; 0-160 km/h : 7.1 seconds; 0-180 km/h : 8.8 seconds; 0-200 km/h : 10.5 seconds; 0-250 km/h : 17.4 seconds; 0-1/4 mi: 11.6 seconds; 0-1 km: 20.7 seconds; Top speed: 308 km/h; Braking from 100 km/h: 36 m; Braking from 200 km/h: 130.8 m.

Did You Know?

• The 911 GT1-98 took both first and second place overall at the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, giving Porsche its record-breaking 16th overall win.
• The street-legal 911 GT1 Straßenversion could accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds and reach a top speed of 308 km/h.
• Only one street-legal version of the 911 GT1-98 was believed to have been produced for homologation.