Chapter 61:

Ultra-Grand Touring1999–2003

n 2003 Porsche’s Leipzig plant manager Siegfried Bülow had to go back to his 8,000-strong pool of potential employees because he anticipated needing 70 more staff

to carry out another task for Porsche: the assembly at Leipzig of the Carrera GT. At the Detroit Show on January 8, 2002, Wendelin Wiedeking announced that in the second half of 2003 Porsche would go ahead with the production of a refined version of the exotic open two-seater that it unveiled, to gen-eral astonishment, at the Paris Louvre on September 28, 2000.

For its new model Porsche revived a designation first used in 1957 for a lightweight version of the four-cam Carrera, a car cut out for competition. The twenty-first-century Carrera GT, however, was conceived not as a racer but as the ultimate

roadgoing Porsche. “With theCarrera GT,” said Wiedeking, “we want to do more than just demon-strate our technical competence inthe sports-car segment. This vehiclealso mirrors the strength and dynamic self-confidence of the com-pany and the Porsche brand.”

Carrera GT GestationThe new Carrera GT traced its ori-gins to cars built for racing. Apart from its success at Le Mans, Porsche was shut out in its 1998 GT-racingseason. Breathing asthmatically through restrictors, its turbocharged engines were denied the power that could have made them competitive.

Particularly lacking, said Norbert Singer, were the mid-range torque and response needed to accelerate away from the slow corners that proliferated on the latest race-track designs.

Drawing a line under the turbo-blown era, motorsports chief Herbert Ampferer recommended that Porsche face itsracing future with naturally aspirated engines. Work on such 1473

Above left:A cutaway drawing revealing the machinery (see page 1486)

Above right:Displaying a powerful Porsche identity, the production Carrera GT(see page 1484)

Left:With its rear wing high and lusty V-10 scream-ing, the Carrera GT was Porsche’s clear state-ment that it wasn’t going to be upstaged in its own territory by super-cars from other auto makers large or small.

Engaging wholeheartedly in the “mine’s

bigger than yours” supercar competition

among the major auto makers, Porsche

reached back to an aborted Le Mans

contender for the technology to create

a supercar of its own to show that the

Zuffenhausen company wasn’t ready to yield

to anyone when it came to ultra-quick and

ultra-costly sports cars.

I

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an engine was put in hand to power a new open GT1 two-seater, the LMP 2000. On November 28, 1998, Porsche announced at its annual motorsports gathering that it would not compete in 1999 but would have a new racer ready for the 2000 season. “We decided to stop for one year,” said Horst Marchart, “and develop a complete new car.”

Ampferer had recent experience to draw upon: the V-10 of 3.5 liters that he’d built and tested to take the place of the Type 3512 V-12 supplied to the Footwork Arrows team. His engineers, led by Thomas Ludenbach, scaled up the concept of this engine to 5.5 liters, keeping the 68-degree vee angle that they’d used with the earlier unit. This angle had been determined as the optimum after an extensive series of ana-lytical studies of bank-angle options and 16 different firing orders. That it was not identical to the 72-degree spacing of the crankshaft’s big-end throws proved irrelevant in practice.

Twin overhead cams for each cylinder bank were gear-driven and opened four valves per cylinder. The V-10’s main castings were aluminum, using a Nikasil coating directly on the cylinder bores. The cylinders were cast integrally with the block to keep the engine as short as possible—22½ inches long—and also stiff enough to be used as the rear portion of the frame.

Much like Honda’s Formula One V-12, the new Porsche ten grouped its pumps and accessories in a case that extended across the front of the crankcase below the crankshaft nose, whence its train of gears was turned. A single water pump on the right side served both cylinder banks. The left-hand bank was offset forward of its mate to accommodate the side-by-side titanium connecting rods. Butterfly throttles controlled the Motronic-generated mixture to an engine capable of revving to 10,000 rpm and producing 680 horsepower.

For the rest of the LMP 2000 Ampferer’s crew had drivetrain and suspension componentry that was carried over, with improvements, from the GT1/98. Britain’s Lola Com-posites produced a new carbon-fiber frame tub to Porsche’s designs, while Norbert Singer went back to the tun-nel to develop an open body—also in carbon fiber—with marked bulges over its wheelhouses.

Although the program suffered some delays, a prototype LMP 2000

was ready for tests at Weissach by the beginning of Novem-ber 1999. Among its first testers were Allan McNish and Bob Wollek, the latter calling it “an excellent car.” All that remained was to marry it to Porsche’s unmatched 24-hour-racing expertise and subject it to Weissach’s rough roads and rollers and the long grinds around Paul Ricard. But this was not to be. On November 21 Porsche announced that the proj-ect would be halted. This was a “business decision,” it said, driven by the need to concentrate all engineering resources on the development of its Cayenne.

Cancellation of the LMP 2000 was a stunning disappoint-ment, wrote Mike Cotton. “Many people working at Weissachhave been betrayed by Dr. Wiedeking’s ‘U’-turn on motor-sport,” he said, “not least the dozens of engineers and techni-cians who have put their hearts and souls into the creation ofa new challenger, a vehicle that might well have been Porsche’s 17th Le Mans winner.” Were Ferry Porsche still liv-ing, Cotton speculated, the promise of a year earlier would not have been broken. In the two years since Ferry’s death, the Briton thought, “Porsche AG has become a vastly different company to the one he knew, in which the accountants have finally triumphed over the engineers. In 1999, it seems, profit comes before pride.”

Cotton was not alone in judging this decision harshly. Pop-ular and TV-friendly Supercup races were all very well, but Porsche’s friends and allies were accustomed to see it jousting

Early development work on the engine intended for the Carrera GT was conducted on the LMP 2000’s four-camshaft V-10. The final engine was upsized in capacity from 5.5 to 5.7 liters.

boldly against tough rivals in the world’s greatest sports-car races. Putting its reputation on the line in racing over half a century was an important foundation of the respect afforded the Porsche brand. New boss Wiedeking had backed the GT-racing efforts of 1996 through 1998, despite meager results in the latter two years. Now he was prepared to take a chance that Porsche’s reputation could survive a longer furlough from the tracks. As for Le Mans, he sniffed, it was not what it once was: “It’s really just VW with several different brands and some smaller brands.”

Responding to Supercar CompetitionHis decision to halt the LMP 2000 project did not imply that the Porsche chief lacked a competitive character. In fact he was not one to shy from a challenge, especially in the commercial arena. And there, in 1999, he perceived threats to Porsche that were just as menacing as any race-track attacks. Other car makers were preparing and unveil-ing exotic sports cars at the apogee of the market. Ford’s Aston Martin revealed its Vanquish and Mercedes-Benz its SLR, to be built in Britain by McLaren. BMW introduced its upscale Z8. Audacious initia-tives from the VW Group included Lamborghinis, a revival of Bugatti, Bentley’s Hunadieres concept car and—most outrageous of all—the Volkswagen W12 open two-seater with its 500-horsepower W-12 engine, a stunning sports car that VW said it planned to produce.1

These provocations spurred Wie-deking into action. “In recent times,” he said, “the giants in the business have discovered the sports car, serv-ing—you might say—some special cream on top of their big cakes. More and more companies are now rounding off their model range with high-performance vehicles claimed to be ‘sporting’ and ‘dynamic.’” Porsche wasn’t going to play second fiddle to these upstarts. Aston Martin, BMW and Mercedes-Benz were one thing, but Volkswagen! It was time

to lay down a marker, to impress upon the industry and public that although Porsche might not be racing, it was second to none in sports cars. Wendelin Wiedeking mustered his troops and issued marching orders: “We have to show the world that we’re still the best in sports cars. Let’s design a superb top-of-

RESPONDING TO SUPERCAR COMPETITION

14751. The decision was later reversed, and the W12 did not go into production.

Top: With two massive studs retaining each main bearing’s cap, the bottom end of the Carrera GT’s V-10 showed its racing-car origins. The robust crankshaft was fully counterweighted.

Bottom: As finally configured to suit the production Carrera GT the V-10 engine had a more compact exhaust-manifold layout as well as catalyst packs leading into its large single silencer.

the line sports car in a high price segment, which in its style and technology would fit into the Porsche range. It can also showcase our abilities in design and engineering.”

“There were no design restrictions,” said one of his troops, Harm Lagaay, “and no need to use any carryover parts from existing projects. The only brief was to make a strong state-ment in the field of top-end sports cars, which Porsche had not made since the 959 of the mid-1980s.” Borrowing from other projects wasn’t prohibited, so use was made of the 5.5-liter V-10 that Herbert Ampferer’s racers were developing for the LMP 2000. It kept its small-diameter racing clutch, and was detuned initially to 558 bhp at 7,500 rpm and 442 lb-ft of torque at 4,500 rpm.2

While August Achleitner, Porsche’s manager of vehicle con-cepts, initially oversaw the planning of the Carrera GT and the building of the first two prototypes, the final production version was designed by a special team headed by Michael Hölscher. In a last project before his retirement Weissach vet-eran Norbert Singer took charge of the aerodynamics. Michael Laub oversaw the suspension and chassis, Dieter Steinhauser the body construction and Willi Seidel the electronics. Com-plete-vehicle integration was assigned to Bernd Zackl while the immensely experienced Roland Kussmaul was technical project leader. As test driver the talents of Porsche-contracted Walter Röhrl were at the ready.

Final development of the powertrain was under the direc-tion of Bernd Ramler, formerly a designer of competition

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Top: Complete with insulating shrouds over its exhaust manifolds, the Carrera GT’s V-10 was mated with its transaxle at Leipzig. The transaxle housing contained its dry-sump oil reservoir.

Bottom: As originally installed in one of the two Carrera GT prototypes the V-10 engine was used as a structural member at the rear, with the inboard coil/damper units and their rocker-arm pivots placed near the centerline.

2. It was noted at the time that the horsepower figure was exactly 1 bhp higher than that announced by Mercedes-Benz for its SLR roadster. “It could be corrected farther upward,” said Wendelin Wiedeking.

engines for Mercedes-Benz racing arm AMG. During the V-10 engine’s perfection its bore was enlarged by 2 mm to 98.0 mm, which with its 76.0 mm stroke gave 5,733 cc. Designated the M80, it continued to have a rigid closed-deck aluminum block whose bores were Nikasil-coated to provide a reliable running surface.

During development the block’s deck height was raised 7 mm to make room for taller slipper-type pistons that had three rings instead of the two that sufficed for the racing ver-sion. Titanium connecting rods joined pistons to crankshaft. In the interest of freedom from vibration the engine was not asked to contribute to the strength of the rear of the chassis as it was when fitted to its racing counterpart and to the first two prototypes of the Carrera GT.

The V-10’s top end flaunted two camshafts per bank. Replacing the racing version’s noisy gear drive were chains. A chain to each bank drove a fine-pitched spur gear which in turn rotated gears on the camshaft noses. In the inlet cam’s drive gear was the unit giving VarioCam phasing of the inlet-lobe timing over a 40-degree range. Unusually for a racing-bred engine, the bearings carrying the camshafts were between the pairs of cam lobes for each cylinder. Racing engines of the period usually put the bearings between the pairs of cam lobes to get the ultimate in stiffness. Cup-type tappets took side thrust from the cam lobes.

M80 operation was under the control of its Bosch Motronic ME7.1.1 system, which fired the same special Beru coils and plugs for each cylinder that were developed for the Cayenne’s V-8. Fuel injection was sequential to multiple points. Each bank of five cylinders had its own cast-

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Top: A graphic side view showed the engineering of the Carrera GT’s engine and transaxle, the latter also derived from the design used in the LMP 2000. The need for a small-diameter clutch was self-evident.

Bottom: In the production V-10 installation the coil/damper units were positioned more outboard. The layout of the air-cleaner and inlet pas-sages was substantially different.

aluminum plenum chamber, inlet throttle and air cleaner/silencer. Catalyst-controlled exhaust systems were bank-spe-cific as well, their design the result of more than 30 configu-rations analyzed.

Weighing 472 pounds, 66 pounds more than its racing predecessor, the vee-ten sat low in the chassis thanks to the battery of external pumps for its dry-sump system. An array of nine scavenging pumps cleared the oil, five from the sump and the rest from the valvetrain. Cooled by an oil/water heat exchanger and stripped of air bubbles, oil was delivered to a reservoir cast into the transaxle housing as was the practice in the GT1/98. For pressure a single pump sufficed. All accesso-ries were grouped at the front of the engine and driven by flat grooved belts.

Here, in a production Porsche, was the realization at last of the V-10 engine for the “F-Wagen” that the Porsche team designed during 1938 and completed at the beginning of 1939. That Type 114 sports car would have had shaft drive to its overhead cams and only 20 instead of 40 valves for its 1.5 liters. Nevertheless it was destined for a mid-engined sports car, exactly the formula of the Carrera GT. It would not how-ever have enjoyed the latter’s 612 net bhp at 8,000 rpm and 437 lb-ft of torque at 5,750 rpm. The new pure-bred ten was limited to a maximum of 8,700 rpm.

Transverse TransmissionEntirely new to Porsche technology was a transverse-shaft transaxle tucked close behind the final-drive gears of the Car-rera GT. Originally designed for the LMP 2000, this was in line with modern racing-car technology as revived by Ferrari for its Formula One cars in 1975. A key advantage was that it brought the heavy bulk of the gears more forward, reducing the overhung masses at the rear of the chassis to gain more agile handling.

From the clutch the drive went to the center of the lower or input shaft of the all-indirect box, driving through a pair of spiral-bevel gears. The input shaft was designed as an inner shaft linked to an outer casing which, in combination, gave torsional flexibility to the drive. Lower ratios of the six-speed box were on the left side and higher gears on the right, next to the reverse gearing.

Unlike the racing version the Carrera GT’s transmissionhad synchromesh and helical teeth in the gear pairs made by Albrecht Hör’s Hör Technologie at Weiden, near the Czech border. Hör, which had built drivetrain parts for the eminently successful Audi A8 sports-racers, carried out the transaxle’s complete design, development and manufacture. From the transaxle’s transverse driven shaft a pair of gears took the drive forward to the differential. The latter, from ZF, provided up to 30 percent control of wheelspin both on acceleration and on the overrun.

As originally designed for the LMP 2000 the engine and 145-pound transaxle were set as low in the chassis as possible to achieve a ground-hugging center of gravity. This required

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Top: Ceramic discs were a feature of the Carrera GT’s PCC clutch, which at 6.7 inches in diameter was just over an inch smaller in diameter than the 928’s 7.9-inch multiple-disc clutch.

Bottom: Designed and built by Hör Technologie, the Carrera GT’s trans-axle received its input from the clutch (1) and a pair of spiral-bevel gears (2) turning the lower input shaft. From there the individual ratios (3) drove the output shaft, from which a pair of transfer gears (4-5) took torque to the differential and thence to the half-shafts (6).

a clutch of very small size, again a well-known trend from the world of Formula One where clutches have reached the incredibly small diameter of 4.0 inches. For Porsche’s sports-racer, heavier than an F1 car and designed for endurance, a 6.7-inch diameter was specified. This was a big step down from the 11.5-inch clutches of the 911 Turbo and GT2.

To cope with this small diameter the clutch had to have multiple driven discs and suitable materials. For racing Porsche has used triple driven discs, for example in its Le Mans-winning GT1/98. These had carbon/carbon friction faces which were fine for racing but in a road car would need replacement as early as 10,000 miles. In its road cars Porsche introduced a special Fichtel & Sachs clutch on the 928 that had twin driven discs so it could be only 77/8 inches in diam-eter, again with the aim of lowering the engine and driveline. Some three decades later twin discs were the choice for the Carrera GT as well.

The rotary inertia of the clutch discs has a major effect on speed of gear-shifting; too much inertia can make shifts slow and difficult. With this in mind, and also thinking of the need to cope with heat, Porsche decided to use silicon-carbide ceramics for the discs. Lighter than the steel alternative and heat-resistant, ceramics had already found a home at Porsche in brake discs. The Weissach engineers turned to the same source, Meitingen’s SGL Brakes GmbH, to supply the ceramic discs. Eight hundred test-bench hours simulating 16,000 racing starts proved the merits of the composite of carbon with silicon carbide for this application.

Supplier to many Formula One teams, Sachs Race Engineer-ing was nominated to deliver the complete clutch assembly. Pagid provided titanium carriers for the organic linings of what was dubbed the PCCC for Porsche Ceramic Composite Clutch. A Belleville spring provided the necessary pressure while hydrau-lics actuated the disengagement through a cylinder concentric with the clutch output and a ball bearing. The whole package, including the PCCC weighing only 7.7 pounds, was bolted to the back of the crankcase at three points.

Hydrodynamic mounts carried the complete engine/trans-axle assembly in a carbon-fiber composite cradle at the rear of the Carrera GT’s chassis that was bolted to the main passenger-carrying monocoque tub, also carbon-fiber-reinforced. Together they weighed 220 pounds while provid-ing stiffness comparable to that of a Porsche coupe. The rear cradle also carried suspension and springing components. Exposed as it was to the engine and the exhaust with its heat-radiating catalyzer, the cradle had both special heat-resistant resins and protective aluminum-honeycomb inserts.

These complex and critical structural moldings were made at Colonnella, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, by ATR Composites. A member of the ATR Group, it had an excellent pedigree in its

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Top: Discovered during development of the Carrera GT, the need to mount its engine flexibly led to the creation of a carbon-fiber cradle at the rear of the chassis that was bolted to the back of the main frame tub.

Bottom: Notable for its compactness, the Carrera GT’s central carbon-fiber tub was made by Italy’s ATR Composites. Occupants enjoyed excellent protection provided by its integral rollover hoops.

work for the aerospace community as well as Lam-borghini, Ferrari, Bugatti and Italian motorcycle com-panies. ATR also made the carbon-fiber bodywork of the Carrera GT. The whole process of manufacturing the components for Porsche’s supercar took ATR four days. Using four different methods to form the vari-ous frame and body elements, its peak production capability was two frames and bodies per day.

The passenger-carrying central tub had integral rollover hoops to protect its two occupants. Between it and the engine was the 24.3-gallon fuel tank. Fabricated of six aluminum panels using a Plasma-tron process whose very light localized temperatures ensured sound and clean seams, it also housed the fuel pumps and filters. All wiring and pipework from front to rear was channeled through the tub’s central backbone.

Enclosing the supercar’s underside was a belly pan comprising three carbon-fiber moldings. It was shaped to develop down force just behind the front wheels and also at the rear, where air accelerated through a raised venturi. Where they intruded into the venturi the lower suspension arms were given a low-drag profile. That the venturi was not just for show was illustrated by its contri-bution of three-quarters of the Carrera GT’s down force at 185 mph of almost 900 pounds.

Suspension by PushrodsSuspension systems proper traced their pedigrees back to Porsche’s 1987–88 chassis for CART racing in America. This marked Weissach’s first use of pushrod suspension with the coil/damper units mounted on the frame and driven through rocker arms. The technique was revived for the GT1/98 and carried over to the stillborn LMP 2000, which gifted it to the Carrera GT. Suspension proper was of conventional parallel-wishbone design using forged aluminum parts except for the rear lower A-arms, which were fabricated of stainless steel.

At the rear the coil/damper units were mounted atop the carbon-fiber cradle where they were visible when the rear deck was lifted, while at the front they were splayed under the cowl just in front of the windscreen. In the latter instance the 8.7-inch pushrods were made of H400 stainless-steel alloy tubing which was hydroformed to expand its cross-section through the middle to increase their stiffness. Propor-tions of the rocker arms, also stainless steel, were such that the springs had a mechanical advantage over the pushrods of some 1.3:1. Links from the rocker arms operated the front and rear anti-roll bars. High-placed rack-and-pinion steering was power-assisted.

Naturally the brakes had ceramic discs. Internally vented and cross-drilled, these measured 380 mm in front and 350 mm in the rear. It was a measure of the relative physics and dynamics that the Cayenne Turbo S had front discs of the same diameter and even bigger rotors at the rear. Brembo

supplied aluminum monobloc calipers with six pistons apiece. ABS was fitted to the dual-circuit system. Brake and clutch pedals were cut from extruded aluminum, the same material serving for the accelerator. They pivoted at the floor from a cast-aluminum carrier.

Experiments with materials for the Carrera GT’s five-spoke wheels proved that forged magnesium was 25 percent lighter than aluminum and 60 percent less hefty than steel. Thus magnesium was adopted for the Japanese-made rims, which measured 9.5 x 19 inches in front and 12.5 x 20 inches in the rear. Respective sizes of the bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires were 265/35ZR19 and 335/30ZR20. Needless to say in the crowded machinery of the Carrera GT there was no room for a spare.

Packed into the Carrera GT’s nose were three radiators. Two set into the corners vented directly into the low pressure of the front wheelhouses while the outlet from a large central core of aluminum, sloped steeply forward, was ducted back into the tops of the wheelhouses. Between the radiators were horizon-tal columns of energy-absorbing H400 stainless, going forward to the front bumper. Similar columns of H400 were used at the rear to soak up energy in mandatory crash tests.

Final track widths of the Carrera GT were similar to those of the GT1 racers at 63.5 inches in front and 62.5 in the rear, while wheelbase, lengthened during the project for aesthetics more than function, became 107.5 inches. The aesthetics were the responsibility of Harm Lagaay, whose task was none too easy. No recent Porsche cues or design idioms were relevant. The GT1 racers had been styled to look as much as possible

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Pushrods from the lower front suspension arms actuated tub-mounted rockers that drove the coil/damper units as well as long links to the front-mounted antiroll bar.

like a 911, not to explore new design directions. The Boxster looked backward in style, not forward, while the 911 was a successful evolution of a classic.

In meeting Wiedeking’s challenge, Lagaay needed to make a fresh start. He had to employ the most subtle of means. “Our brand is not identified by any distinctive element such as a radiator grille,” he explained, “so its personality derives from the way we design the details and handle the surfaces. The typ-ical Porsche shape is set by the combination of surface treat-ment, highlighting and tension, which to a large extent comes from the transition between convex and concave shapes.” Here Lagaay and his team had the rich legacy of such dedicated artists of sheet metal as Erwin Komenda, Dick Soderberg and Wolfgang Möbius upon which to draw.

Styling the Prototypes The Carrera GT was a baptismal project for a new arm of Porsche, a West Coast design studio. Porsche Engineering Ser-vices, Inc. was set up in March 1999 in Los Angeles to carry out design work for Porsche and other clients as well. That spring, the studios in both California and Baden-Württemberg were assigned two days of sketching concepts that would suit a super-Porsche. Three of these were chosen to be modeled in one-quarter scale.

When these were evaulated at the end of May 1999, one was rejected as not having enough Porsche-ness and another as having insufficient aerodynamic potential. Coupe concepts were set aside at an early stage in favor of an open car, said Harm Lagaay: “People who buy such a car want to be seen.”

With the coupes, as well, it was difficult to avoid results that looked 911-ish.

In the next stage, the development of a full-size model, designer Tony Hatter played a key role. “We took a lot of time over it,” said Harm Lagaay. “We needed surface tension to communicate some emo-tion.” Another challenge to the designers was that the car’s forms had to have high feasibility, August Achleitner told Peter Morgan: “Our stylists had a very difficult job, because they had to take account of the technical requirements. That makes this car different to a normal study. We didn’t want to show a car that will be watered down for production. It is very near to a production car.” That, plus inter-ruptions, meant that the Carrera GT’s body design wasn’t ready until March of 2000.

The silver-skinned clay model showed a sleek two-seater that artfully married elegance with aggressiveness. True to Porsche’s principles, it expressed eager urgency without the meretricious excesses of some of its big-company rivals. Its low nose with wide inlets was unremarkable; instead the

Carrera GT’s character was expressed by the dashing sweep of curved lines on its flanks, from air vents behind its front wheels to engine-room inlets, and also by twin headrests fronting a carapace above its V-10 engine. A fine mesh over the engine was its “negligee,” according to Lagaay, both con-cealing and revealing. The wing spanning its rear deck above a central tunnel in the engine cover lifted electrically to be more effective at high speeds.

The finished Carrera GTs—initially two concept cars were built—abounded in fascinating detail. Lifting their rear deck revealed viscera, coil/damper units and an oil filler and cooler, with wheel-removal tools in a receptacle on the left. Cladding concealed the engine. High-intensity headlamps hid under transparent fairings while neon tubes were used for turn-signal and brake lamps. Side mirrors had vee-strut mountings. During development their position was changed to give better visibility to the rear. A very high yet narrow console of magnesium separated the passengers and placed the sequential shift lever high and next to the wheel, like that of a rally car. The steering wheel itself was new to Porsche with a Y shape to its central spoke, which carried several controls. This foreshadowed the style of the similar wheel of the Cayenne.

Instead of fixed dials, the concept Carrera GT used a high-definition display to communicate with its driver. He could choose either a highway-touring display or one which suited closed-circuit racing, even presenting his lap times. From a compartment between the seats a video camera swung out, at the ready to record the instrument readings or a special drive. The manually adjusted seats of the concept cars looked relatively flat to make entry and exit easy, but had side and knee braces that swung up into position to hold the occupants

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Both aerodynamic and cooling requisites were met by the ducting of warm air away from the Carrera GT’s three radiators into the front wheelhouses.

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Above: Production requirements were kept in mind during the creation of this year-2000 prototype of the Carrera GT. While much changed under the skin, its appearance was little altered when it was produced.

Below: The functional side vents and beautifully integrated rear spoiler clearly stated the purpose of this powerful sports car without any of the styling excesses so characteristic of exotic supercars.

under high lateral gs. These were adjustable to suit drivers of different posterior dimensions. Front and side air bags were provided for both driver and passenger. A full windshield had attachments for the fitting of a removable roof, which could be stored in the rear compartment.3

Assessing the Prospects The Paris launch of the Carrera GT came as a stunningsurprise. The old “leaky” Porsche company was a thing ofthe past. Harm Lagaay explained to Peter Morgan how this was achieved:

This has been an extremely inspiring project with such a small group of people, all thinking and working in the same way in creating this super-Porsche. Young or old, itdidn’t matter who was working on the project, they wereall saying to themselves that this was going to be the best. I think that’s how we managed to keep it such a closely guarded secret. Those of us involved were 100 percent committed to the project, and even the best-

informed people outside that immediate circle didn’t fully appreciate what was going on.

A feature of the Paris “reveal” was stunning action footage of Walter Röhrl driving the silver concept GT through a dramatic desert moonscape. This was filmed during the third week of August 2000 in Nevada’s Valley of Fire State Park, northeast of Las Vegas. With temperatures of 105º F and upward in the baking desert, Röhrl wished he hadn’t brought black jeans to Nevada. Driving the prototype Carrera GT was no sinecure. Its triple-plate racing clutch—not the final design—was so fragile that a gang of pushers was always at the ready to get it going. “Around corners,” however, said Röhrl, “it drove like an out-and-out racing car.”

Some compared the Carrera GT to the 959 of almost 20 years earlier. Although both were envisioned as establishing Porsche at a new high level of the market, conceptually the newer car was the antithesis of its predecessor. The 959 was packed to the gunwales with electronics and hydraulics at the state of the art and beyond. It was the very quintessence of Porsche as a technological innovator and leader.

The Carrera GT in contrast made no such claims. Its creation did lead to the filing of some 70 patents, but these related more to construction methods than to vehicle perfor-mance technology. In fact the Carrera GT proudly forswore any but the most essential electronic aids including, contro-versially, Porsche’s PSM system for handling control. It was an avowedly emotional interpretation of a sports-racing car for the road, much more a Dauer GT than a 959. And unlike the four-wheel-drive supercar, when built it would be homolo-gated for sale in the good old US of A.

One thing the Carrera GT would not be was a spectacular money-loser for the company in the tradition of the 959. “You may rest assured that it is not our corporate policy to subsidize this product segment,” said Wendelin Wiedeking at the GT’s Paris launch. “Rather, each and every car we intro-duce must contribute to our overall business results. So we will test the acceptance of the car in the market and the size of the market before taking the final decision to build the Carrera GT.”

Assessing the market’s size was the tricky part, Wiedeking admitted: “Nobody really knows for sure how big the mar-ket segment is for the Carrera GT and its possible competi-tors,” embracing two-seater sportsmobiles costing between $300,000 and $500,000. A certain jostling for position seemed likely.

Producing the Carrera GT would make nonsense of a state-ment by sales chief Hans Riedel in the context of the Cayenne decision. “We don’t live by replacement,” he said, “but we live by discretionary income. So we want to enter larger and less volatile segments.” This fitted the Cayenne decision to a T, but it would be hard to find a smaller and more volatile seg-ment than the one the Carrera GT would occupy. Yet Riedel had another saying that was applicable. It was: “With 12 the

ASSESSING THE PROSPECTS

14833. Here was an echo of the Buckelwagen version of the original Porsche 550Spyder of 50 years earlier.

In Motorsport’s prototype workshops at Weissach the development chassis (rear of photo) is soon to be clothed by the carbon-fiber body panels of the Carrera GT.

first kiss, with 22 the first job and with 42 the first Porsche.” To that he could have added, “With 52 the first Carrera GT.” The Porsche brand’s appeal had been successfully refocused from technology toward emotion during the 1990s, and here was one hell of an emotional Porsche.

Canvassing his dealers and distributors about demand, working with pricing in the range of $350,000 to $400,000. Hans Riedel had little difficulty in drumming up interest in this spectacular car. By the end of 2001 more than 1,000 provisional bookings had been logged with Ludwigsburg. At that time the rumor mill ground out reports that the go-ahead to produce the Carrera GT had already been given, with spy shots showing an early double-bubble roof design. Wendelin Wiedeking confirmed this in Detroit in January 2002. He mentioned a 1,000-car run phased over several years at a rate of two or three cars daily.

Challenge of ProductionDevelopment of the Carrera GT for production was assigned to Weissach’s motorsports group, which faced no shortage of challenges. Replacing the engine as the rear-frame structure with a cradle added some 100 pounds to the car’s weight. The V-10 was converted from its noisy gear-train camshaft drive to the quieter chains that facilitated the use of the VarioCam system. Instead of the sequential-shift racing transmission used in the concept cars, said August Achleitner, a gate-type manual shift was used “because the Americans prefer it.” The lever was placed high, operating through a Flexball cable system.

Taming the wild racing engine with a more biddable clutch was essential. Only 6.7 inches in diameter, a twin-disc ceramic-faced clutch coped with 435 lb-ft of torque at 5,750 rpm from the 5,733 cc (98 x 76 mm) ten, which produced 605 bhp at 8,000 rpm in production form. A proper monocoque chassis needed to replace the provisional aluminum structure of the prototypes. For the production cars some body parts and a monocoque of carbon-fiber-reinforced resin were made by Italy’s ATR compos-ites at Colonnella. Such amenities were required as air-conditioning, electric windows and a functional if small front trunk compartment. The latter provided storage for the two removable carbon-fiber roof panels, weighing a total of only 10.6 pounds.

True to the commitment made when the Carrera GT was designed, its styling

was only slightly changed. Harm Lagaay asked Grant Larson to take a fresh look at Tony Hatter’s work. He subtly amended its proportions, increasing front overhang on the production model. Windscreen surround changed from black to body color while NACA ducts now provided fresh air to the engine. Exter-nal door handles were concealed. Fog lamps were lost when the nose spoiler was reshaped in search of the final drag coef-ficient, which was 0.39. The operation of the rear wing, which rose automatically, included a mode that kept it raised for bet-ter airflow from the rear compartment when a given engine temperature was exceeded.

The final design for the Carrera GT’s interior sidelined the electronic display in favor of a conventional 911-type gauge package, albeit with a 10,000 rpm tachometer and 235 mph speedometer. The column and its controls also came from the 996. With their structures made of Kevlar-reinforced resin, the bucket seats—which lacked rake or tilt adjustments—weighed only 23 pounds apiece against 44 pounds for a 911’s seats and 29 pounds for the carbon-fiber seats of a GT3.

Kevlar reinforcement also featured in the dash and other interior surfaces to protect occupants from the splintering shards that carbon fiber can produce in a crash. Both the doors and the A-pillars were reinforced by high-strength steel tubes. A finishing touch was special optional Ascot Brown leather with a “cloud effect” finish made of the hides of “heavy southern German bulls.” That the designers were successful was hinted at by Road & Track’s comment that “the interior cleverly combines high-tech with elegance, sport with civility.”

One reason why the Carrera GT omitted a panoply of elec-tronic add-ons and features such as four-wheel drive was that a major objective of the project was “to keep weight as low

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Pictured stepping into a Carrera GT at the Leipzig test track, Walter Röhrl played a key role in setting guidelines for the satisfactory com-pletion of this ambitious project.

as possible,” said Harm Lagaay, “without too many gimmicks, electronics and so forth. Our aim was to bring the driver as close as possible to a full-blown race-track experience on the road.” The weight announced by Porsche for the concept car was 2,750 pounds. By the time the production version was ready its heft had risen to 3,040 pounds. This was still a good effort; a Ferrari 360 Spider, on a wheelbase 4 inches shorter, weighed 3,200 pounds.

As noted earlier, outside specialists were brought in to design and make many of the Carrera GT’s special-ized ultralight assemblies. “We do not possess the craft skills in-house to use such materials,” explained Dieter Steinhauser, “so we are working with a number of small companies spe-cializing in these new technologies. We had to benchmark them first for manufacturing procedures and quality control. But once we had done that we were confident we had the right team on board.”

At Porsche’s Leipzig factory the 1,200 subassemblies from these suppliers as well as Zuffenhausen were marshaled in just-in-time style along a production line almost the length of a football field. There each Carrera GT moved through eight stations. Seventy skilled technicians, each white-clad and trained to cope with all the stations, attended at the integra-tion. As needed each station had means to lift and rotate the chassis to suit the operations being performed. The factory’s

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Right: The concept Carrera GT of 2000 fea-tured a high-definition display that would have allowed the communication of a wide range of data in graphical form.

Below: Instead of the concept’s futuristic display and wheel the production Carrera GT had more conventional components, with a high-placed lever operating its six-speed gearbox manually.

2.3-mile test track was handy for shakedowns of the com-pleted cars.

Pilot-line cars were ready for the production Carrera GT’s first exposure to the specialist press late in 2002. Bizarrely, the venue was a former Communist-era landing strip 2½ miles long in the former East Germany, now used as a test center by Michelin. “We were looking for a place where we could safely show the Carrera GT’s potential,” explained press man Jürgen Pippig. Even though the open spaces of Gross-Döllin near Schorfheide, 35 miles northeast of Berlin, offered few oppor-tunities for over-enthusiastic reporters to hit anything, one of them managed it anyway. Within the runway’s limits the cars could top 200 mph.

Porsche would make 1,500 such supercars in three years, the world was informed at the Carrera GT’s coming-out ceremonies in the spring of 2003. The festivities began on Monday, March 3, when the charter terminal at Geneva’s air-port was given fancy dress for a presentation to the press just before the opening of the city’s famous Salon. Hubris was not in short supply. “After the legendary 917 and 959,” said Wen-delin Wiedeking, “we have made our mark for the third time.” Sales chief Hans Riedel praised the “masterpiece of engineer-ing skill from Weissach.” Production of the new model would begin in the autumn, the press men were told. The next day the show car was on Porsche’s stand at Geneva.

Porsche raised the glamour stakes in May in Monte Carlo before the Monaco Grand Prix. With Cartier and Sunseeker it hosted a glittering GT-centered reception for 150 invited guests. Then before the Porsche Michelin Supercup race Michael Hölscher had the honor of pedaling the silver car for two laps of the Grand Prix circuit. This was just the right audi-ence for a car base-priced at €390,000 but actually selling, in Germany, for €452,690. List price in Britain was £330,000 and in America $440,000. This was higher than the $399,000 initially announced to American dealers, who had also been told that production would be limited to 1,000 cars.

In Japan, said Car Graphic, “you won’t get much change out of $500,000 but we’re tempted to say it’s worth every cent. We just didn’t want to give it back, such was the power, sound, feel, shattering performance and all-round charisma of this latest Porsche superstar.” “Work the throttle, brakes and clutch right,” reported Excellence, “and the Carrera GT rewards with an adrenaline rush beyond any we’ve experi-enced in a road-going Porsche. Here’s a sports car with shock-ing performance that’s usable on real roads.”

Real-World ReactionsHad Porsche gone too far in taming its supercar? “The crux of this test,” summed up Autocar, “is that Porsche has somehow managed to make its fastest production car feel like a 600 bhp Boxster. For the engineers charged with rendering such power usable (in the broadest possible sense) and for the majority of us, that is the Carrera GT’s greatest achievement. And yet

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A cutaway drawing revealed the machinery that Porsche’s Motorsport engineers packed into their Carrera GT. Highlights included the use of magnesium for both center console and road wheels.

for some the process of sanitation, when applied to something as deliberately esoteric as a supercar, is a crime in itself. But when the voices settle the verdict will remain unequivocal: the Carrera GT is the best supercar ever made and probably the most exciting road car in history.”

“Much will be written about the tricky clutch,” Autocar added, “and people will doubtless snipe at the ‘carry-over’ instrument binnacle.” The clutch did indeed attract comment. “Time and time again,” wrote Britain’s Jeremy Clarkson, “that clutch proved too tricky and I stalled.” “It’s pretty easy to stall the engine until you adjust to its utter lack of flywheel effect,”

said Kevin Smith in Motor Trend. “Out of some 30 starts,” found an Excellence tester on the streets of San Francisco, “I’ll stall the big V-10 once for every cylinder.” For some Carrera GT buyers the clutch was a fatal flaw; one sold his car because he couldn’t start it on “any kind of a hill.”

There was a trick to it, reported Kevin Jeannette of Gunnar Racing in the pages of Panorama. “The Carrera GT doesn’t have a standard clutch arrangement,” he said. “Rather it’s an electronically controlled deal that requires no use of the throt-tle to get it rolling. You simply put it in gear and let the clutch out, never touching the gas pedal until after it gets rolling. The problem is in trusting the system to modulate the throttle properly. Porsche engineers have done a great job in getting the settings exactly right. However, most people tend to push

the gas down anyway, which of course gets everything haywire and causes the engine to stall.”

For more aggressive starts with trac-tion control switched on, the clutch was ideal, found Road & Track: “Holding the engine at 3,000 rpm and dropping the clutch produced ample wheelspin to cata-pult the car to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and to the quarter-mile mark in 11.3 seconds at 131.6 mph.” Though not quite so quick as a Ferrari Enzo, which had more power and less weight, this was performance to spare. Speeds in gears at 8,300 rpm were 50 mph in first, 86 in second, 112 in third, 147 in fourth, 175 in fifth and 205 in top. If just over 200 mph were seen as slow for a twenty-first-century supercar, said tester Walter Röhrl, “What is the need for going faster?” He had a point.

Exercising the Carrera GT as it wasmeant to be driven offered “biblical power,spine-tingling noises, the torque of anavalanche and raw speed like you simplywouldn’t believe,” raved Britain’s JeremyClarkson. “This is the best, most amazing,most stupendous engine that I’ve evercome across. All cars have a momentwhen you feel the power start to lose its war with the aerodynamics. But this one just keeps on going. 150. 170. 200. It is utterly mind-blowing.”

Those dissatisfied with the Carrera GT’s performance could ship their cars to Ahlen, Germany, for the attentions of edo competi-tion. With new inlet and exhaust systems, a modified chip and high-flow air filters edo offered power-increase stages to 670, 715 or even 770 bhp. Other changes to match the increased performance included a new

REAL-WORLD REACTIONS

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At Leipzig Carrera GTs progressed along a line whose eight work sta-tions gradually added the 1,200 subassemblies that made up a com-plete Porsche supercar.

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rear wing, special dampers and forged aluminum wheels with stainless-steel rims. Their new exhaust system was guaranteed to produce a “deep and sonorous tone.”

Noises were part of the Carrera GT experience, Pete Stout reported in Excellence: “The idle is accompanied by gearbox rattles. Lots of ’em. Its gearbox noise increases as you acceler-ate in first gear, sounding more than a bit truck-like. The total frenzy of the V-10 is intoxicating, even when traveling from stoplight to stoplight at legal speeds. The GT accumulates speed with a shriek that’s pure race car. Its soundtrack offers all the sounds I trek to Laguna Seca or Sears Point just to lis-ten to. The difference is that a mere enthusiast, rather than a works driver, is making them.”

Handling and grip were superb, testers reported. While Porsche claimed cornering capability of up to 1.35 g, Road & Track measured a commendable 0.99 g on “a less-than-ideal and dusty” skid pad. “The car is quickly guided to the apex with stability,” R&T found. Applying power, it added, “the driver has to be patient. Too eager on the throttle and the rear will step out. Even then the onset of oversteer is so progres-sive that it will never catch you by surprise.”

It was a different story if rear traction were lost when entering a corner, said Top Gear: “You’re history. If the back comes round when you turn in, it’s almost impossible to catch. There is absolutely nothing you can do to rescue the situation.” Here was clear conflict with the R&T verdict that

“On turn-in the GT’s lateral grip is excellent.” In some situ-ations, it seemed, the absence of Porsche Stability Manage-ment was noticeable.

With its roof panels in place the Carrera GT was snug but when they were removed, found Autocar, “the buffeting in the cabin at 100 mph-plus is enough to have you blinking to stop the wind licking your eyeballs. It seems an unfortunate over-sight in an otherwise complete package.” Another fault, owners discovered, was the open gap in the fenders behind the front wheels. Sticky tires shot dirt and gravel through the gap, even reaching the rear scoops that cooled the engine bay. In America aftermarket screens were made, aping the mesh of the engine covers, to solve this problem. To cope with the long, low nose and its tendency to scrape on the slightest incline, Germany’s edo competition offered an electrohydraulic nose-lift system.

Grand Touring AdventuresMay 6, 2006, saw production of the Carrera GT end at Leipzig. In fact demand had been softening since the autumn of 2005, affected by the availability of used cars at substantial discounts, and the assembly team cut back from 70 to 22. In all 1,270 Carrera GTs were made, falling short of the prom-ised 1,500 but exceeding the limit of 1,000 that had initially been mooted.

The cancelled cars had been scheduled for sale in the US, where dealers—some of whom had been critical of Porsche’s decision to make so many—did not bemoan their failure to arrive. Ultimately America absorbed almost half A high perspective of the final Carrera GT showed its continued use

of the “negligee” above the engine that concealed yet revealed in the spirit of that item of feminine lingerie.

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the production with 607 units. Singleton cars went to Luxem-bourg, Croatia, Greece, Slovakia, Latvia and Bulgaria.

One Carrera GT went to car-mad comedian and Tonight Show host Jay Leno. He experienced the full assault of customer care Porsche-style: “They asked me if I wanted a loaner car to try one out, then I got a key chain, they sent me a jacket, I got a hat, I got books about the car, I got a letter telling me when the car would be in. Of course all of that has a certain amount to do with being a talk show host, but it is indicative of the company.”

Customer care notwithstanding, the lantern-jawed Leno was surprised and delighted to be asked to report to the Talladega track near Birmingham, Alabama, in September of 2005. Record attempts were to be made and he was invited. The idea was to commemorate the closed-course speed record set 30 years earlier at the same 2.66-mile banked track by Mark Donohue in a specially prepared 917/30 (see Chapter 26). Driving in addition to Leno would be David Donohue, a successful racer and, at 38, the same age his father was when he set the record just ten days before he died in a racing crash.

Records were assured because timing at Talladega was by the Grand American Sports Car Association, whose baptismal record attempts these were. The record-breaker of choice was the Carrera GT, a much-used black car for practice and a fresh silver one for the actual attempts. Returning from retirement

to oversee the effort was racing veteran Norbert Singer, who recommended changes in spring rates, ride height and suspen-sion settings to suit the 33-degree bankings. Michelin supplied racing tires like those used successfully at Le Mans.

In his counter-clockwise runs David Donohue found the demeanor of the Carrera GT “intense. There’s a narrow line around the track. I don’t have a choice of going high or low; I’m just guiding the car.” Wide though its Michelins were they didn’t match the grip of the 20-inch rubber of 30 years earlier. Nevertheless Donohue was timed at a remarkable 196.031 mph for a lap, 198.971 mph over a flying mile and 195.755 mph for a kilometer.

Jay Leno took the wheel for standing-start records. He was timed at 156.602 mph for a full lap from rest. His average for the standing-start kilometer was 110.478 mph and for the mile 128.944 mph. After one of his runs Leno backed off the throttle at better than 180 mph and found that the Porsche didn’t like it. He spun five times, luckily hitting nothing more solid than a traffic cone. This was fortunate, not only for Leno but also for the car, which had been donated to an auction to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

This was the closest that Porsche came to envisioning a competition career for its Carrera GT. Otherwise it strenu-ously discouraged any attempts to race this race-bred road car. “We have had contact with a number of groups inter-ested in racing the Carrera GT and they all got the same answer,” said Hartmut Kristen, who headed Porsche Motor-sport from 2005. “We made a decision not to go racing with that car and we are sticking to that.” By withholding

Seen here during a practice lap for the record run at Talladega with Jay Leno at the wheel and David Donohue co-piloting, the Carrera GT displays a powerful Porsche identity.

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necessary technical information he rebuffed such efforts, including a serious approach from Britain’s Lola.

This didn’t mean that the Carrera GT’s owners failed to explore its considerable potential on both street and track, sometimes with consequences both costly and tragic. The web-site www.wreckedexotics.com depicts manifold examples of wrecked Carrera GTs, frequently attributable to lack of experi-ence and/or inattention at the wheel of one of the world’s fast-est road cars.

Commented attorney John Draneas in Sports Car Market, “It isn’t hard to conclude that many of these cars are sold to owners who have far more cash than driving skill. And it’s probably realistic to assume that these owners are not going to recognize their limitations and will succumb to the desire to drive these cars ‘the way they were meant to be driven,’ sometimes with disastrous consequences for themselves and others.” At additional cost Porsche offered its Porsche Driv-ing Experience training in which, said a participant, “the instructors were wise to stress understanding one’s personal boundaries in a Porsche or any high-performance car.”

In the lawsuit that followed one fatal crash of a Carrera GT, at California Speedway during a Ferrari Club track day, criticism of Porsche focused on its

decision not to equip the new model with Porsche Stability Management, or PSM. Although PSM would have availed little in this head-on crash into a retaining wall at 145 mph, plaintiffs argued that it was “a modern life-saving safety fea-ture” that Porsche “inexplicably failed” to provide.

In depositions from Porsche engineers, reported John Draneas, “one testified that Porsche did not think that its PSM system would work on the Carrera GT because the car’s frame structure and suspension mountings would create strong vibrations that would interfere with its operation. The other engineer testified that PSM was not offered because the customers didn’t want it.” In this lawsuit the argument was moot because Porsche was judged a minor contributor to the fatal crash, ponying up only 8 percent of the reported $4.5 million settlement. But it is unlikely that Porsche will again

Heavyweight encounter: Porsche’s Carrera GT posed next to a front-engined rival from a fellow Stuttgart company, the supercharged Mer-cedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

David Donohue (left) and Jay Leno (right) pose with the record-setting Carrera GT. Donohue set records for fastest lap, flying mile and fastest kilometer. Leno set three standing start speed records.

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sell a powerful road car without PSM.

Here was irony indeed, for in the development of Porsche’s previous super-car, the 959, Helmuth Bott eschewed none of the most advanced means of endowing his creation with optimum stability. He invested in it, said Autocar,

“seemingly space-age thinking that left us thinking the 1985 959 was almost extraterrestrial.” In contrast, it added, “The Carrera GT exists as an exercise in what can be achieved with finite engineering evolution rather than what can be pre-viewed through technological revolution.”

Charged with overseeing that engineering evolution at Weissach since the spring of 2001 was Porsche’s new board member for R&D, Wolfgang Dürheimer. Taking over from Horst Marchart, the 43-year-old Dürheimer gained a sense of the size of the shoes into which he was stepping from the tribute paid the departing Marchart by Wendelin Wiedeking. “With his great store of experience, both technical and human, but also with the proverbial calm of the Austrian,” said the Porsche chief, “at critical moments above all he influ-enced many important decisions in a positive way. For me Horst Marchart is a foundation stone of Porsche from whom we all—whether at Weissach or in the board—have much to learn.” Marchart had been expected to remain in his post lon-ger but, as he told a colleague, “Too many people are dying young. I’ll retire sooner than I thought.”

Bespectacled and curly-haired, Wolfgang Dürheimer was the first technical chief to parachute into his post without sub-stantial experience at Zuffenhausen or Weissach. This was not necessarily a negative, said one senior engineer, “but it would have been better to have someone from within.” Dürheimer was a BMW man, said the engineer, who remarked that there were “lots of BMW people coming in” to Porsche’s technical side to join those who’d already infiltrated the sales and mar-keting ranks.

Wolfgang Dürheimer was born in Germany’s most south-erly region, Bavaria’s Allgäu Alps, in 1958. After his engi-neering tuition in Munich he studied in America for a year under a Fulbright sholarship. Completing his economic and engineering education in Munich, he joined BMW as a trainee in 1984. His curriculum vitae there included two years as product manager for coupes and special engines. From 1994

Dürheimer headed R&D and product management for BMW’s motorcycle arm where, as he said, “I was trying to get them interested in racing, but getting no response.”

Thus Dürheimer was susceptible when, in 1998, “someone contacted me and said, ‘Are you interested in sports cars?’ So I said, ‘Why not?’ I already knew something about Weis-sach from the joint work we’d done on motorcycle projects, so I appreciated the strength of the individual departments.” Wolfgang Dürheimer joined Porsche in January 1999 with the assignment of working on the Type 996. Only after his arrival did the bombshell of Marchart’s retirement explode, propelling the youthful yet experienced engineer into his board position.

Supervisory-board chairman Helmut Sihler welcomed this new-generation technical chief. “Young, talented yet very experienced people must and will constitute the future of our company,” said Sihler. “In recent years Wolfgang Dürheimer not only has shown what he can do but also has grasped the product and company philosophy of Porsche in a visible and vital manner.”

Commenting about his new job, Dürheimer said: “We know what we have to do. We are pure, and we remain pure. We don’t need any bric-a-brac. The attractiveness of our cars lies in their purity. We know that Porsche drivers appreciate that, and they’ll also be able to do that in the future.” Evolu-tion rather than revolution was his declared objective: “The new must be new, without making the old look old.”

Like Ulrich Bez before him, Dürheimer brought some of BMW’s engineering management methods to Porsche. Paying a compliment to the knowledge and competence he found at Weissach, he “strengthened the cooperation, secured the lateral connections between departments and optimized the information flow.” The new top engineer considered it a “pre-requisite to develop and implement a completely new organi-zation model. I’ve introduced a new upper-level department whose mission is described by its name: ‘Concepts, Innovation and Computer-Driven Technologies.’” For the Carrera GT, he added, “we’re working flat out on this development, which represents racing technology for the road.”

While his motorsports people were developing the GT, Dürheimer said that “we can very well do without participa-tion in major motorsports until we’ve completed this project.” Here he touched on a topic of intense interest to all Porsche enthusiasts. After the disappointment of its parking of the LMP 2000, the company had had little to say about a possible return to the front lines of the sport that had made its reputa-tion. The only news was no news.

Committed as he was to bringing the Carrera GT to mar-ket at the end of 2003, said Herbert Ampferer, he had no time to prepare for 2004. Thus 2005 was the earliest that any top-level initiative could be launched by Porsche. In fact that year found the wraps coming off the first pure racing Porsche to take to the track since the GT1/98.

After joining Porsche in early 1999, Wolfgang Dürheimer was elevated to the post of board member for Research and Development in spring 2001 to take over from the retiring Horst Marchart.

GRAND TOURING ADVENTURES

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At Sebring in January of 2008 the Penske team’s RS Spyder strutted its stuff in the ALMS practice session, showing that despite a weight penalty it still had the credentials to lead the field.Photo courtesy Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG

Porsche brazenly broke free of its sport-car niche with the launch of its Leipzig-built Cayenne in 2002. In this sport-utility developed in cooperation with Volkswagen, the emphasis was on “sport.”Photo courtesy Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG

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At the Watkins Glen Six Hours, 1970, a Carrera 6 (Bartling/ Peterman/Ranier) leads the third-place finisher, a Ferrari 512S (Andretti/Giunti). Victory went to two Porsche 917’s.Photo by Barry Tennin

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About the AuthorAuthor Karl Ludvigsen is among today’s most respected automotive historians. He has served as technical editor of Auto Age and Sports Cars Illustrated magazines, as east coast editor of Motor Trend and as editor of Car and Driver. He is the author, co-author or editor of more than three dozen books and reports about cars and the motor industry.

Author Karl Ludvigsen. 1988 Type 911 Carrera.Illustration by Carmen Console