Guide: Porsche Carrera GT — Supercar Nostalgia

Jan 27

Jan 27 Guide: Porsche Carrera GT

Porsche - Porsche Carrera GT - 2000s German Cars - 2000s Supercars

Background

The 911 Turbo (930) was Porsche’s first series production model to rival top flight machinery from Ferrari and Lamborghini.

In a performance sense, the 930 could match the Ferrari BB and Lamborghinin Countach while its unrivalled practicality and much lower price ensured the forced induction 911 massively outsold its illustrious Italian rivals.

In the early 1980s, both Ferrari and Porsche took things to the next level with the announcement of Group B homologation specials. The resultant 288 GTO and 959 were a dramatic step up in both performance and price. However, while Ferrari made a packet on the GTO, Porsche lost huge sums on every 959 they sold.

By the time 959 deliveries were underway, Ferrari were about to introduce their second ultra high performance model: the GTO Evoluzione-based F40. The F50 then followed in 1995, but Porsche were still nowhere to be seen at the top end of the market.

The reasons for this were twofold: the 959 had cost an enormous amount to bring to market and, during the first half of the 1990s, Porsche were in financial dire straits.

Fortunately, the arrival of the 993 and Boxster began to turn things around and Porsche returned to top level racing. First came the 1994 Le Mans winning Dauer 962 LM Sport and then the big budget 911 GT1 that culminated in another win at la Sarthe (this time in 1998).

A total of 25 911 GT1 road cars were built for homologation purposes, but these were thinly veiled racing cars as opposed to properly developed road cars.

Unfortunately, the 911 GT1 and Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR played a major role in destroying the promising revival of GT racing that had taken place since 1992. For 1999, the premier GT1 class was scrapped and GT2 machinery took over. The consequence of this was that major manufacturers returned to bona fide LMP sports prototypes for the motor sport success they craved.

Porsche wanted to get in on the act and secretly began development of an LMP1 class machine for the 1999 season. The resultant LMP2000 (also known as the Porsche 9R3) was initially conceived to run a turbocharged Flat 6.

As a result of the engine’s heavy weight and cooling issues, this plan was abandoned in November 1998.

Porsche switched focus to a 3.5-litre V10 instead. Such an engine had first been developed for Porsche’s early nineties F1 programme. The 3.5-litre V10 was designed to replace the disastrous Type 3512 V12 used by Footwork for a handful of races in 1991. However, Footwork decided to revert to a Cosworth engine and the Porsche V10 never saw active service.

Eight years later, the 3.5-litre V10 was revisited as a potential power source for the LMP2000. It was comprehensively reworked and enlarged to a capacity of up to 5.5-litres.

The LMP2000 was ready for testing in the spring of 1999, but the programme was cancelled in May of that year to avoid direct competition with Audi’s R8 LMP car. Porsche and the Volkswagen Audi Group had very close ties and the forthcoming Cayenne was using much VAG hardware. With this in mind, it seemed politically expedient to discontinue the LMP2000 operation.

Rather than abandon their freshly reworked V10 engine, Porsche decided to use it to power a long-awaited successor to the 959.

The resultant Carrera GT was unveiled in concept form at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2000.

Production began at Porsche’s new Leipzig plant in early 2004 and a run of 1500 vehicles was anticipated, all of which would be left-hand drive.

Chassis

The Carrera GT was built around a carbonfibre monocoque and rear subframe manufactured by ATR Composites of Colonnella, Italy. It had a 2730mm wheelbase and rear wheel drive layout whereas the 959 had been four-wheel drive.

Inboard suspension comprised double wishbones with pushrod actuated springs and dampers plus anti-roll bars at either end.

380mm cross-drilled and ventilated carbon discs with six-piston monobloc calipers were fitted all round;. The Carrera GT was the first production car to use carbon discs instead of steel.

Electronic driver aids included ABS and traction control.

Five spoke centre-lock forged alloy wheels were painted Hyper Silver. They measured 19 x 9.5-inches at the front, 20 x 12.5-inches at the rear and were shod with specially developed Michelin tyres.

Track was 25mm wider at the front than the rear.

Fuel tanks with a combined capacity of 92-litres were mounted either side of the engine.

Engine & Gearbox

Although the Carrera GT displayed at Geneva in 2000 used a 5.5-litre engine, displacement was taken out to 5.7-litres for production. An overall capacity of 5733cc was achieved thanks to a bore and stroke of 98mm and 76mm respectively.

The all-alloy Type 980/01 engine was a 68° V10 with dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder.

It used a sand-cast block, hydroformed steel conrods, variable valve timing on the intake camshafts and sodium-cooled exhaust valves. Other equipment included dry-sump lubrication, Nikasil-coated bores, forged titanium connecting rods and forged pistons.

The engine weighed 215kg and ran a 12.0:1 compression ratio together with Bosch Motronic ME 7.1.1 fuel-injection.

Peak output was 605bhp at 8000rpm and 435lb-ft at 5750rpm.

Transmission was via a six-speed manual gearbox, twin-plate Porsche Ceramic Composite Clutch and limited-slip differential.

Bodywork

Unlike some of its rivals, the Carrera GT was quite an understated design. Its sleek, muscular form was inspired by some of Porsche’s previous sports racing cars, most obviously the 917 of 1969 to 1971.

The nose housed three intakes for the brakes and radiator while additional scoops were carved out down each flank. Twin headlights per side along with the indicators were mounted under clear glass covers.

Body coloured roll hoops were positioned behind the seats along with meshed covers above each cylinder bank.

A two-piece removable roof stowed under the front lid.

A drag coefficient of 0.39 was achieved although this rose considerably when the electronic rear spoiler deployed at speeds above 70mph.

Aluminium body panels were used apart from the engine cover which was carbonfibre.

Interior

Inside, lightweight bucket seats were made from carbonfibre aramid composite.

Leather was used to upholster the seats, dash top and knee roll, the steering wheel, gear gaiter, the sides of the centre console and windscreen surround. Door panels were a mix of leather, carbon fibre and aluminium. The dash, centre console and headrests were also inlaid with aluminium.

The instrument binnacle housed five analogue gauges set within a carbon fascia. A central 10,000rpm tachometer was flanked by a speedometer and oil temperature gauge to the left. To the right was a combined water temperature / fuel gauge and an oil pressure read out.

A digital speedometer, clock, trip meter and odometer were also present.

A manual beech wood gear knob was mounted on the sharply inclined floating centre console.

Standard equipment included electric windows, power-steering, air-conditioning, a Bose audio system and satellite-navigation.