For sale – one very rare, very fast race-bred Porsche 911 GT1 that you can drive on the road.
Want to own one of the greatest, rarest road-going race cars in the world? Then, my friend, you are in luck. Just check out this 1998 Porsche 911 GT1 Evo Straßenversion. It’s close to 600bhp of purebred racing heritage, and it’s up for sale.
The story of the GT1 dates back to 1996, when Porsche heavily modified a Type 993 911 to beat the mighty McLaren F1 GTR at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. They succeeded. But in order for the racing 911 GT1 to conform with the regulations of the time, there needed to be a road car upon which the race car was homologated. That car was the Straßenversion – the German for ‘street version’.
This 1998 model is modified slightly from the 1996 model, by way of Type 996 generation headlights. Hence the ‘Evo’ bit of the name. Sadly it doesn’t boast the same underpinnings as the 1998 race car, which went from a steel chassis to a carbonfibre monocoque – Porsche only had to build one road-going version of the ’98 car to confirm to the rules, and they’ve hung onto it.
But this car, one of only 20 built for customers, is still an absolute monster. With a front end based on the 993 and various tubes and boxes added to the back to house the mid-mounted 3.8-litre flat six engine, it’s almost identical to the car that blitzed the opposition in ’96. This car is number 10, outfitted in light yellow paint with a surprisingly green leather interior and Recaro seats, and has done only 5500km from new. It weighs just 1150kg and is, in short, a hurricane with a Porsche badge on it.
What’s unusual about the sale of this Straßenversion is not only that they don’t change hands very often, it’s that we know about it. Most of the time when cars this rare and this expensive change hands, it’s done behind closed doors. You don’t see a lot of them around. But this car was spotted by our photographer Luke Gilbertson tooling around London – not a common occurrence considering the low mileage over 17 years.
At the very least, it’s prompted considerable interest and articles like this one. Maybe that’s the idea – if you’re interested, drop UK dealer Trofeo Cars a line and have at least $1.5 million in your bank account. Don’t forget our commission.
Photos: Luke Gilbertson
