Part 17: About the Porsche Carrera GT

About the Porsche Carrera GT

The Porsche Carrera GT is a mid-engined sports car that was manufactured by Porsche between 2004-2007, and it's one of the most popular sports cars from the 2000s. Based on the 911 GT1 and LMP1-98 racing cars, the design of the Carrera GT was meant to be a prototype for the 1999 Le Mans. This prototype, with a V10 engine, was displayed in the 2000 Paris Motor Show, and it was a smash hit. Porsche began work on a road-worthy version, which began to be sold in 2004. As with all sports cars, only a small amount of them were produced before Porsche pulled the plug: a total of 1270 GTs had been manufactured.

The Carrera GT's V10 engine can produce 612 hp (450 kW), and can go from 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds with a top speed of 205 mph. The Carrera GT had five basic color schemes (custom colors were available from the factory), a six-speed manual transmission, and a little beechwood gearknob on the gearbox that pays homage to the wooden gearknob used in the Porsche 917 Le Mans racers. An interesting note is that the ignition is to the left of the steering wheel rather than the right. The placement of the ignition dates back to the early days of Le Mans racing when drivers were required to make a running starts, hop into their cars, start them, and begin the race.

Triple A Says...

When Porsche lets their engineers do what they do best, you get cars like this beast.