The rarest of racing Porsches goes to auction
A 1997 Porsche 911 GT1 sold at auction this weekend in Monaco for $3.2 million dollars. The 911 in question is a very special vehicle.
The Porsche 911 GT1 was designed for competition in the GT1 class of sports car racing. In all, 18 racing cars and 23 road cars were produced for a total of 41 GT1s. In contrast, 107 McLaren F1s were produced making the GT1 a very rare vehicle. .
The road-going 911 GT1 is basically a detuned version of the racing model that had a six-cylinder Porsche motor producing 537 horsepower. Weighing in at 2,535 pounds, the vehicle was capable of accelerating from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds accelerating all the way to 191 miles per hour.
Even though the car was called a 911, the only thing it really had in common was the frontal chassis that was shared with the 993. The rear of the car was modeled after the legendary Porsche 962, including its twin-turbocharged, intercooled, water-cooled, four valve per cylinder flat-six engine
The GT1 had a mid-engined configuration meaning that the engine was mounted in front of the rear axle. In contrast, the 911 had a rear-engine configuration meaning the engine is located behind the rear axle.
The racing version produced 592 horsepower even though it was capable of more. This was sufficient to win a large number of wins throughout its racing career.
Nowadays, the car is highly sought-after and very collectable. It is one of the rarest of Porsche racing cars.
Source: RM Sotheby’s
