The best homologation ever
Motorsport series like the GT1 have produced some of the most powerful and fast road-legal cars ever. The Porsche 911 GT1 is an example of this. Although it was initially designed for racing, the Stuttgart-based automaker had 25 cars to be homologated for road use. Two prototypes had been built before the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development tested their compliance with the laws.
A second prototype was purchased by Khalid Abdul Rahim, a Bahrain-based private collector. This particular car visited the 2021 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este and was filmed by Auto Mike. This car had the same 911 style headlights as the first prototype. The rest of the production was equipped with modern 911 (996) headlights.
Despite the similarities in the names, the 911 GT1 and 911 911 had the same headlights. Road-legal 911 GT1 Strassenversion versions, also known as 911 GT1 Strassenversion, had a slightly modified version of the race car’s twin-turbocharged flat-6 engine. The six-cylinder engine produced a peak output power of 536 horsepower (400 Kilowatts) at 7,200 RPM and 443 pound feet (600 Newton-meters), of torque at 4,250 RPM.
It was a remarkable car, especially considering the time it was built. The acceleration of the car from 0 to 60 miles per hour (or 100 km/h) took just 3.9 seconds. This result was achieved by Germany’s Auto motor und sport magazine in a 1997 test. Journalists reached a top speed of 191 mph (308 km/h), which was again in line with what the automaker claimed.