20 YEARS OF CARRERA GT
There are sports cars and there are race cars. Somewhere in between, there’s also the Carrera GT, derived from a Le Mans prototype and taking the form of a 603bhp race car with road registration. At the back end of 2020, this ground-breaking Porsche celebrated its twentieth anniversary. Two decades after the concept car made its debut in Paris, Porsche planned to return to France with the Porsche Museum’s Carrera GT in the hope of recreating the famous concept launch, when two-time WRC champion and Porsche brand ambassador, Walter Röhrl, drove the Carrera GT concept car from the Arc de Triomphe to the Louvre. Unfortunately, as was the case with so many plans in 2020, COVID-19 had other ideas. Deemed a high-risk region, the population of Paris was under stay-at-home orders at the time of the planned visit, which is why Porsche presented its Carrera GT to Berlin’s Pariser Platz instead.
Powered by a V10 and famous for being the first carbon-fibre standard-production Porsche, the Carrera GT was penned by factory stylist, Grant Larson, while he was working on the 997-generation 911. With zero adjustable chassis or launch controls, the €452,400 (£311,000) Carrera GT was viewed as an almost ‘back to basics’ supercar. Old-school or not, it was a machine driving enthusiasts were crying out for — advance orders numbered a thousand, encouraging a projected run of 1,500 units.
Carrera GTS rolled off the assembly line at Leipzig alongside the Cayenne, with engines shipped over from Zuffenhausen. Three Carrera GTS were built by hand per day, and in typical and longstanding Porsche fashion, buyers were able to request custom interior and exterior finishes toward the end of the model’s time on the assembly line. Sadly, sales fell short of Porsche’s predictions due to changing airbag regulations in the USA, which was the Carrera GT’S biggest market. The 1,270th and final Carrera GT was completed on 6th May 2006.
The Carrera GT generated huge amounts of media coverage for Porsche. More importantly, it delivered big profit. For all its technical supremacy, this was the one failing of the Carrera GT’S spiritual predecessor, the 959. Even so, both cars left a lasting imprint on Porsche thinking, with the Carrera GT not just recognised as one of the most impressive mid-engined cars ever built, but its advanced technology and extraordinary looks continuing to rank it as one of the greatest sports cars of all time.