{"id":64025,"date":"2013-02-11T15:01:13","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T14:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtspirit.com\/?p=64025"},"modified":"2013-02-10T19:39:56","modified_gmt":"2013-02-10T18:39:56","slug":"road-test-porsche-carrera-gt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtspirit.com\/2013\/02\/11\/road-test-porsche-carrera-gt\/","title":{"rendered":"Road Test: Porsche Carrera GT"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Porsche\u2019s background is very strongly rooted in motorsport. But while cars like the 959 and GT1 were constrained by their 911 heritage, no such parameters hindered the evolution of the Carrera GT, which was as blue sky a road going supercar project as any design team could wish for. <\/p>\n

That said, Porsche has never denied that the Carrera GT concept was derived from the \u2018what might have been\u2019 idea for a new Le Mans challenger whose budget was channelled into the commercially astute Cayenne project instead.<\/p>\n

In 2003, Porsche boss, Wendelin Wiedeking announced that Porsche required at least 1,000 firm orders for the Carrera GT to be a credible business case. That number was quickly exceeded, and Porsche planned for a total production run of 1,500 cars. Eventually, 1,200 cars were delivered and Porsche ended the production run in 2007 in profit, and with a great image enhancing flagship model.<\/p>\n

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One area where the Carrera GT scores heavily against almost every other contemporary supercar, barring the Pagani Zonda, is in the perfect execution of its detail design and build quality.<\/p>\n

When I attended the pre-drive technical briefing at Weissach in May 2003, I commented that many of the superbly finished suspension components and lightweight magnesium castings would make fabulous desk ornaments. Even the centre lock wheel spinners, blue for the right wheels and red for the left ones, are a talking point.<\/p>\n

I also opined that the finished chassis was so spectacularly well detailed and finished, it was a shame to hide it, and that Porsche should offer a spare chassis for Carrera GT owners to admire and show off!<\/p>\n

If the Carrera GT has one foible it is its super-lightweight ceramic clutch. Latterly this was improved, but it has not endeared itself to owners who are not always dyed-in-the-wool enthusiast drivers living near open roads.<\/p>\n

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Personally, I don\u2019t find the clutch a big problem. You just have to remember to let the short travel clutch in gently to get the car rolling before you ease in the throttle. Once you are moving there are no more issues at all. <\/p>\n

That clutch is a problem if you live in a city, but frankly I find all supercar to be more trouble than they are worth in an urban environment, due to their width, lack of visibility and the sheer frustration of not being able to open them up. It is no wonder that the latest crop of supercars has dual clutch gearboxes with paddle shifters!<\/p>\n

The counterpoint is being in the drivers\u2019 seat of a Carrera GT with the open road beckoning. Climb on board and you will be pleased to find that the seat and steering wheel have more than enough adjustment. Six foot five Walter Rohrl can find a comfortable driving position in this car, so almost anyone else will be hard pressed not to.<\/p>\n

There are no pretentious separate start buttons or aircraft style flick switches here. Just turn the key in the ignition and the 5.7 litre V10 fires up with a yelp that promises a completely different driving experience from that of any road-going Porsche that has gone before.<\/p>\n

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With 612bhp at 8,000rpm and 590Nm of torque peaking at 5,750rpm, the 1,380kg GT blasts through the benchmark 100km\/h time in 3.9 sec, takes just 6.9 sec to reach 160km\/h from rest and a further 3.0 seconds to pass 200km\/h on its way to its 330km\/h top speed. <\/p>\n

Like all major league supercars, the Carrera GT carves a big hole through the air. The huge air intakes that feed the radiators and brakes, and the aerodynamic aids that help to keep the car from aviating, also deny it a slippery drag coefficient. Porsche quote a Cd of 0.39, but then unerring stability over 200mph is a serious issue. <\/p>\n

When I first speed tested the Carrera GT on the 3.2km long main runway of a former Russian airbase in East Berlin back in 2003, the data logger in my test car read 198.75mph. The car was still perceptibly accelerating when I passed the marker bollard indicating the safe braking distance that would prevent us shooting off the end of the runway. <\/p>\n

Braking is something the Carrera GT does exceptionally well too. The ten runs we did in each direction involved anchoring hard from near 200mph back to around 60mph at the end in each direction, and the massive ceramic brakes proved up to the task. This was a brake test that no Italian supercar of this era could have survived covered in glory.<\/p>\n

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