In its ongoing series celebrating its unrivaled success at Le Mans, Porsche is covering the 1998 911 GT1 that earned it its 16th overall victory at the event just a few months after the passing of the great Ferry Porsche.
To tell the story, Porsche has brought in the man in charge of its overall concept, Norbert Singer. Boasting the first carbon monocoque built for the Le Mans program, the car is a bit of a link between the old-school racers that came before it and the ultra-modern race cars that would follow.
Singer explains that the team had wanted to push the 911’s engine into the middle since the 935 and they were finally allowed to do it with the GT1.
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Weighing around 970 kg, it had as little weight as possible to remain within the regulations. It was powered by a 3.2-liter twin-turbocharged flat-six that made around 542 hp (550 PS/404 kW).
Despite a perceived lack of pace, Porsche’s expertise in endurance racing helped it win the race. Things like placing the driver on the right side of the car because most tracks run clockwise and that puts the driver on the inside of the corner for better weight distribution and also helps with driver changes, helped it on its mission.
The race was a tight one, though, and Singer reports that as it was coming up to the time for the final pit stop, Porsche was calculating when theirs would be vs the leading Toyota. It was all very tight “until the Toyota retired. So the problem was solved,” he says.
It’s a fantastic look at the story of one of the cars that defined ’90s endurance racing.