GT1
Just nine customer cars were built. Only seven were converted to Evo specification. Now, one returns to the circuit
Just nine customer Porsche 911 GT1S were built. Total 911 recounts the story of how one returned to the circuit
Warming up against the screech of the unsilenced Cosworth DFVS, the first thing that strikes you about the engine is how quiet it is. Despite the mammoth tailpipes, the twin KKK turbochargers suck a lot of the raspy flat six sound out of the garage’s atmosphere.
That’s not to say this car lacks theatre. The unburnt 102-octane Sunoco fuel pops and bangs as it ignites in the exhaust, sending bursts of orange flame out the back. The whistling turbines can be heard before the barking 3.2-litre boxer breaks through the air. 15 years after television showed me one streaking down the Hunadières, this is my first live sighting of a Porsche 911 GT1.
15 years is a long time for a racing car to be idle. Thankfully, this 1997 GT1 Evo was rescued by Mark Sumpter, head of Porsche specialists Paragon. After a comprehensive rebuild, race tracks beckon once more. After a seven-year factory absence from top-line motorsport, Stuttgart returned to Le Mans in 1996. After attempting to make the 993 GT2 competitive against the Mclaren F1 GTRS, Weissach saw an opening to exploit in the GT1 regulations. The result? An extreme version of the Porsche 911.
The mid-engined 911 GT1 turned the regulations on their head. In order to get the car homologated for competition use, Stuttgart needed to produce 25 road-legal examples. In early 1996, the ‘Straßenversions’ rolled off the production line, with one delivered to the German government for emissions testing. It passed.
The 1996 car was built nine months after the board’s decision to go racing. The short lead time was partly thanks to Porsche’s decision to utilise standard parts on the GT1. Despite being stretched and widened, it bore a similarity to the 993. The front subframe, in fact, was modified from the road car design. Inside, the dashboard carried over from its production sibling.
In its first race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the factory cars took
1st and 2nd place in the GT1 category, with only the Joest prototype standing between them and victory. This was also followed up by wins at Brands Hatch, Spa-francorchamps and Zhuhai in the BPR Global GT Series. This stunning entrance to the GT scene led to myriad enquiries from privateers who were keen to get their hands on Porsche’s latest offering. Stuttgart obliged, producing nine cars for customer teams to run during the 1997 season. However, Porsche didn’t just rest on its laurels. While the privateers turned up at round one of the new FIA GT Championship with their 993-faced GT1S, Porsche AG also unveiled an updated version of its works cars.
The 911 GT1 Evo was a comprehensive overhaul. The 993 subframe was removed (although the dashboard remained) and the aerodynamics improved, most visibly with the addition of the new ‘kidney’ lights that would feature on the 996.
Unfortunately, neither the GT1 nor the works Evos were a match for the 6.0-litre naturally aspirated
V12s powering the Mclarens and the new Mercedes CLK GTR. The FIA rules dictated that turbocharged engines needed to run 33.9mm air restrictors as a means of balancing performance.
Even at Le Mans, where the cars ran unrestricted, the 911 GT1 Evo couldn’t enter into legend. Despite the lead car (driven by Bob Wollek, Thierry Boutsen and Hans Stuck) qualifying in 2nd place and enjoying better fuel economy than the Joest prototype, Wollek crashed on Sunday morning. The other GT1 Evo then took over the lead, only for a failed heat exchanger to sadly scuttle the efforts of Emmanuel Collard, Ralf Kelleners and Yannick Dalmas.
The rest of 1997 was similarly ignominious, as the Mclarens and Mercedes continued dominating, much to the chagrin of the privateers who had signed up with Porsche. In August 1997, their loyalty was rewarded when seven of the original nine cars were updated to Evo specification by Weissach.
1998 saw a change in the FIA GT1 rules. Just one road-going example was needed for homologation, paving the way for a season of even more outlandish ‘Grand Touring’ cars. After the disappointment of the Evo, Porsche went to new heights with the 911 GT1-98. If the previous attempts were racing cars converted to the road, this new iteration was an all-out prototype. The GT1-98 featured a full carbon-fibre monocoque, extreme aerodynamics, double wishbone suspension and a bespoke cockpit.
Although the car continued to be restricted in the FIA championship, Le Mans victory 16 came to Porsche with a concerted factory effort. As the Silver Arrows and BMW prototype efforts fell by the wayside at La Sarthe, Stuttgart took a 1-2 in the French classic. No GT1-98S were offered to customers, but GT1 Evos continued to race throughout 1998, gradually filtering into national GT competitions over the next few years.
Like the similarly incredible 917, the GT1 didn’t feature at the top for long. However, for many the
GT1 epitomised the extravagance of late-nineties GT racing. Sumpter is one such man enthralled by these cars. “A lot of people are romantic with Group C, and I love Group C cars [Sumpter also owns an ex-joest Racing 962], but I wasn’t watching racing when that era was around. GT2S and GT1S were my thing. When I was racing Beetles and 2CVS, that’s when I started watching Le Mans in the mid-nineties. I remember standing at Paddock Hill corner and seeing both the works cars bouncing out of the pit lane at Brands Hatch,” reminisces Sumpter. So when the chance to purchase a 911 GT1 Evo came around in 2007, he jumped at the chance – even though he didn’t have the money to pay for it.
For such an extraordinary car, the deal to buy it was hardly normal. A friend of Sumpter’s had initially purchased the car – chassis number 109 – from Larbre Compétition, which was the last team to race it. Unfortunately, a persistent misfire ended up creating more trouble than fun. “He [the previous owner] phoned me up at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. He said, ‘Today’s the day. If you want to buy it, let’s have a deal.’ I had to go and find somewhere quiet to talk, and it was done in ten minutes,” Sumpter explains.
Sumpter managed to convince a finance company into lending him a “big share” of the money. The seller, being a friend, also allowed him to take his time finding the deposit. Chassis 109 was initially delivered in ‘993-spec’ to Konrad Motorsport on 24 April 1997. Just ten days later, Franz Konrad and Mauro Baldi managed to prequalify the car at Le Mans. The car was so fresh that it was adorned with only a few sponsors’ decals.
Before the 24-hour enduro, Konrad took the car (now in white, blue and green) to a pair of FIA GT rounds. At the latter event in Helsinki, the car took its best finish of 7th. La Sarthe proved an unhappy hunting ground, an accident forcing 109 out. Further DNFS at the Nürburgring and Spa lead to Konrad reverting back to a GT2 for Zeltweg.
In August 1997, the car was sent to Weissach for the Evo update. While at the factory, Konrad sold the car to JB Racing. Its new owners painted the car in the timeless Marlboro livery, although Baldi continued to pilot alongside Emmanuel Collard. Results continued to be unspectacular, and at the end of the 1997 season JB parted with the car.
Larbre then took control, placing ex-formula One driver Jean-pierre Jarier in the cockpit of the nowplaystation-liveried 911 for Le Mans prequalifying.
The team tried to get the race organiser to give the GT1 a starting slot, but entries were massively oversubscribed. “The organisers said, ‘The best we can do is give you a GT2 entry.’ So [Larbre] rallied around and liveried up a GT2 in the same colours,” Sumpter explains.
After Le Mans, Porsche legend Wollek was enlisted to drive in a few FIA GT rounds, taking a best finish of 9th at Dijon in France before 109 was mothballed. “When they retired the car, Larbre basically put it in the corner of the workshop and put a sheet over it. It hadn’t been touched for seven years (before Sumpter’s friend purchased the car).
Sumpter is pragmatic about the car’s minimal provenance. “It would be lovely to have a car with a longer history. But I quite like the fact the car has never been touched. It’s completely back to original. It’s lovely.” He’s right. After over a decade away from the track, this 1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Evo has been restored in its evocative Playstation colours.
Restorations like this take time. Lots of it. But this rebuild has taken longer than originally envisaged. The initial outlay on the car, combined with a will to do it properly, extended the job over a number of years. “I’d dreamed of sitting in one, let alone owning one,” enthused Sumpter. “I just let the dust settle and started paying the finance.
“We were also racing in Group C. The engine needed to come out [the misfire still present], so we sent it to Paul Knapton at Xtec. He’d done a 962 engine for us, and seemed the man to do the GT1.”
“The carbon-fibre panels had their history in paint”
While Xtec rectified the engine’s seemingly omnipresent low compression, Sumpter’s Paragon rebuilt the gearbox and suspension components. Meanwhile, a Motec control system was fitted, replacing the old TAG 3.8 system. Suddenly, the restoration had sprung into life with the GT1 “almost in three places at once.”
Then the global recession hit, and Sumpter’s talents were required back in the showroom.
“It was actually quite good fun,” he muses, “but hard work.” The car was put to one side, and the motorsport division disbanded.
After weathering the financial tempest, Sumpter decided to pass the rebuild to Xtec in 2010.
Sumpter explains the handover. “I said to Paul, ‘I can’t afford a big monthly bill, take as long as you like.’ He’s taken a couple of years with it, but I think this has benefited the car. When you look at it, we haven’t rushed. We’ve waited for parts.”
The brake discs and pads were such parts. Costing €7,000 (£5,900), the carbon components use an endurance compound, aiding longevity. Sourced from a supplier to some of the Formula One grid, Knapton “ordered them at the beginning of their F1 season, and we got pushed to the back of the queue. They took about eight weeks to come.”
It was Knapton’s Xtec outfit that updated the car’s electronics to the Motec unit. “The TAG unit was basically like an obsolete computer. The Motec makes the car a lot more user-friendly.” The control unit can operate the traction control and the ABS, although the latter isn’t yet in action, as Sumpter wants to familiarise himself with the carbon brakes.
The engine rebuild took around 150 hours: two to three weeks’ worth of solid effort. Unlike the Group C cars, though, Knapton was able to source the necessary components straight from Weissach.
After stripping the chassis to its bare bones, Knapton replumbed the brake lines, cooling system and electronics. The final result is a credit to Sumpter’s passion for Stuttgart and Knapton’s engineering expertise. Sent to a specialist in Northamptonshire, the carbon-fibre panels “had their history in paint,” according to Knapton.
“When they took the black off, the Marlboro colours were underneath. 17 kilos of paint were taken off in total.”
Now in its new lightweight coat, the 911 GT1 Evo glistens and the carbon weave is visible below the paint. Under the body, the internals suggest the car just strolled out of the Weissach factory. Sumpter and Knapton both feel the car is ready to go racing, and I’m inclined to agree. Through the high-speed sweeps of Donington’s Craner curves, the GT1 Evo looks poised and purposeful. Chassis 109 has definitely stretched its legs. Back in the garage, the brake discs radiate across the concrete, the smell of carbon dust fills the air, and the 18-inch Michelin slicks stick to anything and everything. After 15 years away, this GT1 is back where it belongs.