Desperate time calls for desperate measures.
1995 was a hard time for Porsche in the motorsport scene. They were struggling to win in the WEC, the Porsche 962s being entered were showing its age alongside newcomers such as the McLaren F1 GTR and their newest entrants to the GT1 class at the time the 911 GT2 Evos were suffering reliability issues after uprating the power output to compete in the class.
Spurred on by these defeats, in drastic action Porsche decide to build a new car for GT1 in that same year now known as the 911 GT1.
Despite being branded as a 911, its actually more closely related to the Porsche 962 prototype sharing the rear subframe and 3.2L twin turbocharged mid-mounted flat six engine. The only two elements that are similar to the 911 are the appearance and the front subframe which Porsche engineer Norbert Singer decided to help save time on getting crash test approval. The 911-like body is made of lightweight carbon fiber and Kevlar.
Porsche revealed the 911 GT1 the following year for LeMans with much better result. Placing 2nd and 3rd overall. To be able to compete Porsche must comply with homologation rules to build 25 road-legal versions which are dubbed the Straßenversion or “street version.” The Straßenversion are slightly detuned producing only 536hp instead of the full 600hp to meet emission regulations
Porsche continued evolving the breed in consecutive years with sleeker body, new sequential gearbox, and all new carbon fiber chassis. The joy is somewhat short-lived as the WEC game changed once again when Mercedes debuted the CLK-LM and dominated the competition, so in 1999 Porsche withdrew from the class along with others and the GT1 class was cancelled.
A very, very late review of an acquisition from my Secret $uper. Its a cast I wanted ever since I saw one back when I was just a youngster in 3rd Grade, with one of my classmates playing with it in the playground sandbox. Rest assured this example from the MBX’s limited run Superfast series will never see that kind of play in this very clean pearl white with extra attention to tampos minus the Porsche emblem which I had to apply myself. The wheels are the only thing that let the cast down being too big and in an incorrect style but I can manage to live with it. The cast represents the rarer earlier version of the 911 GT1 with 993-gen headlights which only two known to exist while the rest got the 996-gen headlights.
Big thanks to my Secret $uper for this awesome Porsche.