There are some cars that are rarer to see than winning the lottery. The road-going version of the Porsche 996 GT1 is one of them. And then there is the only example finished in blue. That truly is the jackpot.
It is 1997. Porsche breaks with decades of tradition, introduces the new 996 generation and, for the first time, equips the 911 with the controversial “fried egg” headlights. At the same time, however, a beast is born in Weissach, Germany, that instantly puts every design discussion into perspective. The Porsche 911 GT1 is not a highly tuned sports car built for cruising down the boulevard. It is a genuine Le Mans prototype that was allowed onto public roads through a clever homologation trick and the addition of a real license plate.
While conventional 911s carry their engines at the rear, the GT1 breaks all the rules. To achieve the perfect balance on the racetrack, the engine is moved forward, sitting ahead of the rear axle in a true mid-engine layout. The body is constructed from an ultra-light and extremely expensive combination of carbon fibre and Kevlar, resulting in a race-ready weight of just 1,150 kilograms. Beneath the enormous rear engine cover lies the heart of the racing machine, a water-cooled 3.2-litre flat-six, force-fed by two brutal KKK turbochargers. Even in the more civilised road-going version, this engine produces an astonishing 544 hp.
Paired with a sharp and uncompromising six-speed manual gearbox, this 1990s hypercar rockets from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.7 seconds, reaches 200 km/h in 10.4 seconds and continues on to a top speed of 310 km/h.
In order to compete in the GT1 class at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans, the regulations required manufacturers to build at least 20 road-legal examples. Porsche built exactly the minimum required number, resulting in only around 25 road-going versions, each carrying an astronomical price tag of 1.5 million Deutsche Mark at the time. Anyone lucky enough to spot one of these incredibly rare GT1s in its unmistakable 996-inspired design is witnessing a rolling monument to an era when engineers were still willing to turn radical dreams into reality. Porsche's overall victory at Le Mans in 1998 was the logical consequence of this extraordinary piece of automotive madness.
Most GT1s were delivered in silver, officially known as Arctic Silver Metallic. Only a handful of particularly daring customers chose a different colour. Just a few were delivered in white, finished in Fern White, one in Guards Red, one in Pastel Yellow and one in this blue.
Seeing one of these unusually coloured cars is even more difficult than spotting an already astronomically rare GT1. And yet, lucky spotter J.Photography managed to photograph this unique blue example. What an incredible spot. There are very few cars that could possibly top a spot like this.
Congratulations to the incredibly lucky spotter!
Click on the photo for more photo's of this spot!
