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The Porsche 911 GT1 was a racing car designed for competition in the GT1 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and sold as a road car for homologation purposes.
History
Porsche debuted the 911 GT1 in 1995, announcing that it would compete at the 1996 24 hours of Le Mans. In spite of its name, the car actually has very little in common with the 911, its floorpan was taken from the 956/962 Group C car. In addition, the GT1 featured a water cooled, twin-turbocharged and intercooled 3.2 L, four valve per cylinder flat-six in a mid-mounted position and making about 600 horsepower. In comparison, the 993 generation 911 GT2, which was otherwise the company's highest-performance vehicle, used an air-cooled engine with only 2-valves per cylinder and mounted in the rear, which is the traditional layout for the 911. The new vehicle was an outright success, winning the GT1 class at its debut race, although it lost the overall victory to Joest Racing's TWR prototype, still a success in that the vehicle used a Porsche powerplant.
Porsche made minor revisions to the car for the 1997 Le Mans, including restyling the front end to incorporate "kidney shaped" headlamps like what would appear a year later on the 996 generation 911s. However, the works cars suffered from reliability problems and did not last the full race distance; a privately entered GT1 managed 5th overall and third in its class, but was beaten by the BMW-backed McLaren F1s.
Porsche committed themselves to a full blown re-thinking of the vehicle for the 1998 race, and eventually brought it back as the 911 GT1 Evolution featuring radical changes to the bodywork and a new sequential gearbox. The revised "Evolution" model fulfilled Porsche's expectation, taking both first and second place overall, giving Porsche its record-breaking 16th overall win at LeMans, more than any other manufacturer in history. As of December 2005 this record still stands.
The car was not as competitive in the FIA GT Championship. The 911 GT1 made its debut in the BPR Global GT Series (the FIA championship's predecessor) at the last race of the 1996 season, in Zhuhai, although the organisation was reluctant to accept the car and did not allow it to score points. Emmanuel Collard and Ralf Kelleners won outright without much contention. In 1997, the Porsche did not prove to be as fast in the FIA series, and failed to win a single race, first against the McLaren F1, and then against the new Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR. In 1998, in spite of improvements to the car, the privately entered Porsches proved to be no match for the works CLKs. In 1999, GT1 cars were banned from the FIA GT Championship and the car moved to America to race in the American Le Mans Series, but was only allowed to do so as a LMP (Le Mans Prototypes) class entry, where it proved uncompetitive against actual prototypes such as the Audi R8.
The road version
Regulations for the GT1 category stipulated that to be eligible, a total of 25 cars must be built for road use. Porsche developed a fully road-legal version of the GT1 and delivered one in early 1996 to the German government for compliance testing, which it passed. The engine had to be slightly de-tuned to meet European emissions laws, although its 544 PS (400 kW) and dry weight of 1,100 kg proved to be more than adequate; the vehicle could accelerate to 100 km/h (62 mph) from a standstill in 3.5 seconds on its way to a top speed of 310 km/h (193 mph).
History
Porsche debuted the 911 GT1 in 1995, announcing that it would compete at the 1996 24 hours of Le Mans. In spite of its name, the car actually has very little in common with the 911, its floorpan was taken from the 956/962 Group C car. In addition, the GT1 featured a water cooled, twin-turbocharged and intercooled 3.2 L, four valve per cylinder flat-six in a mid-mounted position and making about 600 horsepower. In comparison, the 993 generation 911 GT2, which was otherwise the company's highest-performance vehicle, used an air-cooled engine with only 2-valves per cylinder and mounted in the rear, which is the traditional layout for the 911. The new vehicle was an outright success, winning the GT1 class at its debut race, although it lost the overall victory to Joest Racing's TWR prototype, still a success in that the vehicle used a Porsche powerplant.
Porsche made minor revisions to the car for the 1997 Le Mans, including restyling the front end to incorporate "kidney shaped" headlamps like what would appear a year later on the 996 generation 911s. However, the works cars suffered from reliability problems and did not last the full race distance; a privately entered GT1 managed 5th overall and third in its class, but was beaten by the BMW-backed McLaren F1s.
Porsche committed themselves to a full blown re-thinking of the vehicle for the 1998 race, and eventually brought it back as the 911 GT1 Evolution featuring radical changes to the bodywork and a new sequential gearbox. The revised "Evolution" model fulfilled Porsche's expectation, taking both first and second place overall, giving Porsche its record-breaking 16th overall win at LeMans, more than any other manufacturer in history. As of December 2005 this record still stands.
The car was not as competitive in the FIA GT Championship. The 911 GT1 made its debut in the BPR Global GT Series (the FIA championship's predecessor) at the last race of the 1996 season, in Zhuhai, although the organisation was reluctant to accept the car and did not allow it to score points. Emmanuel Collard and Ralf Kelleners won outright without much contention. In 1997, the Porsche did not prove to be as fast in the FIA series, and failed to win a single race, first against the McLaren F1, and then against the new Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR. In 1998, in spite of improvements to the car, the privately entered Porsches proved to be no match for the works CLKs. In 1999, GT1 cars were banned from the FIA GT Championship and the car moved to America to race in the American Le Mans Series, but was only allowed to do so as a LMP (Le Mans Prototypes) class entry, where it proved uncompetitive against actual prototypes such as the Audi R8.
The road version
Regulations for the GT1 category stipulated that to be eligible, a total of 25 cars must be built for road use. Porsche developed a fully road-legal version of the GT1 and delivered one in early 1996 to the German government for compliance testing, which it passed. The engine had to be slightly de-tuned to meet European emissions laws, although its 544 PS (400 kW) and dry weight of 1,100 kg proved to be more than adequate; the vehicle could accelerate to 100 km/h (62 mph) from a standstill in 3.5 seconds on its way to a top speed of 310 km/h (193 mph).
