The Making of the Carrera GT

It is perhaps not well known that in 1992, Porsche designed and built a 3.5-litre V10 Formula One engine to replace the heavy V12 that had powered the 1991 Footwork F1 cars. When the Footwork team chose an alternative constructor and powertrain for the following season, the Porsche V10 engine was shelved.

Porsche Carrera GT, the car’s registration plate indicating the engine horsepower (2004). © Corporate Archives Porsche AG

Porsche had just won the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours with the GT1, and so naturally, all eyes looked to the Stuttgart manufacturer to see what they would follow that performance with. But Porsche would be absent from Le Mans in 1999, as Porsche race engineer Dieter Steinhauser explained, “We started this development (LMP 2000) in the summer. But we said we couldn’t be ready for Le Mans in 1999 because, to have a completely new powertrain, open car, bodywork, aerodynamics, etc., there wasn’t enough time. Therefore, we said we would race again at Le Mans in 2000. So we were not at Le Mans in 1999, but we continued with the development work on that car.”