Porsche 911 GT2 (993) Review

By the mid 1990s most GT racing rules limited or banned all-wheel drive, so to race its new twin-turbo 911 Porsche built a rear-driven version and enough road cars to homologate it for the GT2 class. Development began in 1994 and the car was presented at the start of 1995; for a year it was the most powerful and fastest model Porsche sold. The German price was 268,000 marks in 1995, about $187,100 at that year's exchange rate, rising to 278,875 marks by 1997, and it was never sold new as a road car in the United States. Porsche's own count is 194 cars, many of which went racing, and the road cars carried 911 GT rather than GT2 on the engine lid.

Porsche assembled it from the best parts it had: the Turbo's engine with its output raised from 408 to 430 PS, the front spoiler and lightweight door panels of the Carrera RS, and plastic wheel-arch extensions bolted to the body so they could be replaced quickly after contact on track. The driven front axle, rear seats and rear wiper went, the doors and front lid were aluminium and the rear and side glass thinner, which together saved 205 kg against the Turbo and lifted top speed from 290 to 295 km/h. The huge rear wing earned its size, making downforce, channelling air to the intercoolers and drawing intake air through openings in its sides.

Options were few: a radio, air conditioning, airbags, electric windows and a Clubsport package. For 1998 twin-plug ignition raised output to 450 PS. Walter Röhrl, driving Jan Koum's restored car for a Porsche story in 2019, summed it up: "It's not what you'd call a comfortable drive, but the steering is insanely aggressive."

Its running costs matter less than its price. The engine is the proven Turbo unit, but the bodywork, wheels and many trim parts are specific to a car built in small numbers, and a racing history is common, so originality and documentation decide the value. Gooding sold one for $1,485,000 at Amelia Island in 2018 and estimated another at $1.75 million to $2 million at Pebble Beach in 2023.

The GT2 did to the Turbo what the RS did to the Carrera, and it started a line that ran through to the 991 GT2 RS. It is loud, wide, stiff and unforgiving, its cabin is bare, and it asks for skill as well as money. Its standing rests on what it was built to be, the most extreme air-cooled 911 sold for the road, and judged on that it has few equals.