1996
Other
Petrol
11,450 Miles
Coupe
Silver
Manual
RHD
Used
In Free Circulation
In 1995 Porsche introduced the new 993. Although they were probably unaware at the time this was to be the last of the iconic air-cooled 911s. In competition, all-wheel-drive had been banned by most sanctioning bodies by the mid-1990s. This was as a result of Porsche's success with the four-wheel-drive 961, Audi's rally wins with the Quattro and the later track success of the Nissan Skyline. This presented a problem for Porsche, whose Turbo was fitted with four-wheel drive; the solution was simple and this was the GT2, which was built with rear-wheel drive only. A side benefit turned out to be significant weight savings, and the GT2 was instantly competitive.
A factor of Porsche's intention to go racing was that they had to build a number of road-legal GT2s in order to homologate the model for racing. At about 430 horsepower the 3.6L twin-turbo flat-six ran higher boost than the standard Turbo model and developed almost as much horsepower as the racers and was mated to a manual six-speed gearbox. The GT2 shared the cutaway wings with the Carrera RS and had removable and replaceable bolt-on flares in order to fit wider wheels for racing and quickly fix crash damage. The Large rear wing provided additional down-force, with air intakes on the sides for the engine. With saving weight in mind the bonnet and doors were aluminium and the side and rear window glass was thinner. In addition, the three-piece, light-alloy Speedline wheels had Stahlgrau magnesium spiders. In fact, the body was lowered by 20mm compared to the 911 Turbo to reduce drag.
As chronicled in the definitive GT2 book; Porsche completed just 194 road-going GT2s as well as a further 78 race cars.
The original owner of this example was an avid fan of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A regular attendee of the event, he would see the GT2 race car debut at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. Shortly after his return to the UK, he would find himself in the newsagents, copy of Autocar in hand; the front cover, a 993 GT in limited edition road trim. It was a must.
Three visits to Porsche JCT600 later and his order was confirmed for one of just 16 UK C16 examples to be built. The 993 was optioned in Arctic Silver with Black/Grey leather bucket seats and with the sole optional extra of a graduated tint windscreen. After speaking to the original owner in December 2023, it was confirmed that he wanted the car without airbags, (and therefore featuring the more attractive three-spoke steering wheel of the GT1), without a radio, and with windup windows. This was certainly a car specified to be in a form faithful to the racing examples that the first owner witnessed competing at the fabled circuit that he so adored.
Artic Silver replaced Polar Silver for the 1997 model year revised colour palette, with the latter colour being moved to the Paint to Sample list after 1996 production ended. Taking into consideration that production numbers were much lower in ‘97 & ’98, Just 20 examples would leave the factory in Arctic Silver and of those, just 4 were RHD.
Sitting aside from specification choices, almost all cars were fitted with a 320km/h speedometer. Only three cars sit outside this, and this example sports the M020 double scale speedometer to both 320km/h and 200mph.
Collection from the factory was mandatory for UK buyers. Porsche dealers at the time were happy to sell anyone their flagship GT product, but as the cars were not originally type-approved for the UK, collection had to be made in person by the buyer and the car would be registered later. Having placed the order 5 months earlier, but delaying collection into early 1997, a flight was booked and a long drive back to the UK ensued.
Upon his return, the original owner was disappointed to learn that despite just having collected the car from the factory, it had been built to 1996 specification, rather than the EU specification MY1998 cars. The 1998 specification saw revised turbos and a new ECU with power rising from 430hp to 450hp. The factory responded immediately and a week after arrival in the UK, this example was upgraded to 450hp by Porsche JCT600
If the quest for more power seems a little trivial on a car that was so performant in its era, evidently it was not enough for the owner of this 993; as he would go on to purchase an upgraded Ferrari F40 and a road-going Porsche 962 Le Mans car!
For the first three years, the car would remain in storage (as it was not able to be registered in UK). It was registered for the first time in 2000 and the owner would keep the car for a further 10 years until 2010. He parted ways with the car for £200,000 with just 8,600 miles from new; without a crystal ball doubling his money seemed like a good deal and the car moved to its second owner!
The second keeper, Mr Kingham, kept the car for a further five years, covering just over 1,000 miles in this time. DK Engineering handled the sale to the third owner at that time, and once more to the current owner in 2019.
GT2s very seldom come to market, but rarer still does one in the uber rare RHD format become available, and especially one as correct and superb as this car. Simply, this is not an opportunity to be missed. Today this example presents with just 11,450 miles from new and will receive a fresh service at Porsche Reading as part of the sale. This wonderful example is available to view at our showrooms outside London immediately.,
