Photo: Emre Husmen via Instagram
They say competition is the driving force of the economy, and the same can certainly be said about the automotive industry as well. However, while the number of sales will always be the most important indicator of success, defeating your rivals in motorsport competitions has always had a particularly sweet taste.
It's because of that taste that cars such as the Porsche 911 GT1 Straßenversion came to life, and even though the racing version's actual success in motorsport was somewhat limited, the road-going model etched its name into the history of the brand, if not even the industry as a whole.
Developed for the 1996 season of the BPR Global GT Series (later to become the FIA GT Championship), the 911 GT1 was a race car that had almost nothing in common with the 911 model of the era. To be admitted into the competition, though, Porsche was required to make a limited-run street-legal version, which is how the Straßenversion (literally German for "Street Version") came to be.
The fact it needed to be road-legal meant a few concessions needed to be made, but the car still looked like the craziest Porsche the world had ever seen. It kept most of the race car's aerodynamics, as well as the fender-mounted wing mirrors, but most importantly, it kept the 3.2-liter turbocharged straight-six mounted longitudinally in a very un-911-like rear mid-engine setup.
Power output had to be taken down a notch, but with 600-odd hp, to begin with, that meant it still had almost 550 hp to play with in the end. However, it's 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) acceleration time of 3.9 seconds can now be matched by a Mercedes-AMG A 45 S hot hatch, but the same can be said about any supercar of its time, so it shouldn't count as a stain on the GT1's reputation.
Even though there is no plan - and pretty much no chance in hell - for Porsche to resurrect the 911 GT1 nameplate, that didn't stop 3D artist Emre Husmen from imagining what it would look like. Based on the 992 generation, the modern GT1 wouldn't follow the same recipe as its ancestor, which only kept the front and rear lights of its contemporary 911.
Emre's creation takes a different path, one that sees it morph into the ultimate incarnation of the 911 sporting a wide body kit with insane aero and the biggest air vents you've seen on a 911. Naturally, that begs the question of the powertrain hulking underneath the engine cover. Well, a choice between an upgraded version of the 3.8-liter straight-six in the Turbo S or a twin-turbo version of the 4.0-liter in the GT3 RS would be the most obvious options. You could even think about some sort of electric aid, though that would mean bringing the GT1's weight up, something the model is notoriously against.
As cool as this approach looks, it also means the 992 GT1 couldn't even hope to compete in the GT Series, like its ancestor did. It seems to be more of a track weapon for everyone brave enough to drive it, or skillful enough to make the most of its potential. New Nordschleife record? That's a definite yes, and probably only the beginning.
Developed for the 1996 season of the BPR Global GT Series (later to become the FIA GT Championship), the 911 GT1 was a race car that had almost nothing in common with the 911 model of the era. To be admitted into the competition, though, Porsche was required to make a limited-run street-legal version, which is how the Straßenversion (literally German for "Street Version") came to be.
The fact it needed to be road-legal meant a few concessions needed to be made, but the car still looked like the craziest Porsche the world had ever seen. It kept most of the race car's aerodynamics, as well as the fender-mounted wing mirrors, but most importantly, it kept the 3.2-liter turbocharged straight-six mounted longitudinally in a very un-911-like rear mid-engine setup.
Power output had to be taken down a notch, but with 600-odd hp, to begin with, that meant it still had almost 550 hp to play with in the end. However, it's 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) acceleration time of 3.9 seconds can now be matched by a Mercedes-AMG A 45 S hot hatch, but the same can be said about any supercar of its time, so it shouldn't count as a stain on the GT1's reputation.
Even though there is no plan - and pretty much no chance in hell - for Porsche to resurrect the 911 GT1 nameplate, that didn't stop 3D artist Emre Husmen from imagining what it would look like. Based on the 992 generation, the modern GT1 wouldn't follow the same recipe as its ancestor, which only kept the front and rear lights of its contemporary 911.
Emre's creation takes a different path, one that sees it morph into the ultimate incarnation of the 911 sporting a wide body kit with insane aero and the biggest air vents you've seen on a 911. Naturally, that begs the question of the powertrain hulking underneath the engine cover. Well, a choice between an upgraded version of the 3.8-liter straight-six in the Turbo S or a twin-turbo version of the 4.0-liter in the GT3 RS would be the most obvious options. You could even think about some sort of electric aid, though that would mean bringing the GT1's weight up, something the model is notoriously against.
As cool as this approach looks, it also means the 992 GT1 couldn't even hope to compete in the GT Series, like its ancestor did. It seems to be more of a track weapon for everyone brave enough to drive it, or skillful enough to make the most of its potential. New Nordschleife record? That's a definite yes, and probably only the beginning.
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