Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion Steps out of the Museum, Looks Hungry for Winding Roads

The sportscar maker built the 911 GT1 Strassenversion (Street version) for the homologation of the GT1 class race car that was to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. One of the requirements to race at Le Mans was to build a limited run of street-legal cars based on the one that was to be registered in the competition, where it would battle with iconic models such as the McLaren F1 and the Ferrari F40.

Porsche built 20 such homologation examples. And they were unlike any other model that had ever worn the Porsche badge. It was rare, it looked like it was born for the race track, it was a collectors’ dream. This explains why, back in 2017, an example was auctioned off for a staggering $5.6 million. And this car is like wine, the older it grows, the better it becomes. Its value must have doubled since then.

The production car arrived in 1997 with 996-style headlights. Most of the cars were finished in Arctic Silver and Fern White. Three of them had unique paintwork: Polar Silver, Indian Red, and Pastel Yellow. A single one rolled off the production line the next year, in 1998, to homologate the racing Porsche under the new FIA regulations.

Most of them today are stored away from the elements in private collections. One of them has been enjoying the spotlight at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart and steps out every once in a while to stretch its legs.

The 911 GT1 Strassenversion is powered by a 3.2-liter twin-turbocharged flat-six engine, which had to be de-tuned to comply with the European regulations that applied to street-legal cars. So it only came with 536 horsepower (544 PS) instead of the 592 horsepower (600 PS) of the race car, and 442 lb-ft (600 Nm) of torque. A six-speed manual transmission steers them to the rear axle. This car screams ‘fun.’

It can flash from 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 kph) in 3.6 seconds, from 0 to 124 mph (0 to 200 kph), and could hit a top speed of 192 mph (310 kph). It only weighs little over a ton (2,535 pounds/1,150 kilograms). And that’s still more than the car that raced in Le Mans, since the street-legal version has an air conditioning system on board and various other features that race cars are usually deprived of in the name of performance.

It must have missed the acceleration, the winding roads, the fresh air. The video uploaded by Porsche on the brand’s YouTube channel shows the car driven like it is supposed to be driven, full throttle, while eating up the tarmac like no tomorrow along a winding road.