Screenshot: Hoonigan AutoFocus / YouTube
Following what was more or less an outright ban on Porsche’s dominant 962 in sports car racing, Porsche looked at the new regulations for GT1 road-based sports cars and decided to build something to fit in there as well. The rules of the day required a certain number of street cars to homologate for the class, so when Porsche decided to build what amounted to a 962 wolf in 993 sheep’s clothing (wolf im schafspelz), it needed to build a few for the street as well. That’s why the world has the greatest road-going 911 in history, the 993 GT1 Strassenversion!
While the headlights and taillights are 993-ish, almost nothing under the skin is. The front suspension is double wishbone, as opposed to the McPherson strut style all 911s use. The car is mid-engine instead of rear-engine. The motor back there is based on the same unit as found in the 962, meaning it’s water cooled. The roof of the car and the doors and maybe some of the design aesthetic are 993, but it’s been stretched and pulled and rejigged in a hundred different ways, and the back of the car is essentially a 962 rear subframe bolted to a 911-ish front monocoque. It’s a really weird car, but an incredibly cool one.
This particular car was visiting E-Motion Engineering for a thorough going-over after it developed an oil leak in the hands of a private collector. The shop found that the turbos had sprung a leak, and rebuilt both to exacting specifications to put it all back together better than before. It’s honestly an amazing piece of Porsche history, and while we didn’t get to see it in person while it was out for a bit of non-collector storage leg stretching, we’re so glad that the folks at Hoonigan took the time to give the world a walkaround.