The Only Time Porsche Put a V10 in a Production Road Car

On November 3, 1999, Allan McNish took a black open-top prototype around the test track at Weissach and reached 302 km/h (188 mph) despite running tires that weren’t suited to the cold temperature. The car was the LMP 2000, Porsche’s planned contender for overall victory at Le Mans, and by the time McNish drove it the program had already been canceled. After 78 km (48 miles) of testing, the car went under a cover and stayed parked for more than two decades.

The engine behind McNish’s seat had a better future. Less than a year later, the Carrera GT appeared at the Paris Motor Show in September 2000 as a near-production study, and the V10-powered car entered series production three years after that. Porsche has never raced a V10, and the Carrera GT remains the only production road car it has built with one. The path that engine took to reach the street explains why it happened just once.