Monterey Car Week looks to have a couple of tributes to the Porsche 911 GT1 on display. RML is set to reveal a take on the 992 that’s been inspired by Le Mans racers, while you may have seen a mysterious car expected to be the work of Tuthill doing the rounds. Why settle for the imitators when you can have the real thing, though?
This 1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Rennversion will be auctioned by Broad Arrow amongst all the Monterey festivities this week, and it comes with some serious pedigree.
1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Rennversion
One of just nine 911 GT1s that were sold to customer teams, this car was purchased by Roock Racing which would field it in the 1997 FIA GT Championship. Later, it was bought by Rohr Racing for a campaign in IMSA, taking four race wins and the title in the latter.
It would also make an appearance under Roock at Le Mans that year with Allan McNish, who would go on to win that IMSA title, Stephane Ortelli and Karl Wendlinger at the helm. It didn’t make it too far into the 24-hour race, though, DNF’ing after just eight laps with a shock absorber failure to blame.
1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Rennversion, engine
Despite passing through several hands and race series in the following years, this GT1 has at some stage been restored to its pretty mega Rohr Racing livery. It’s even rarer as an early pseudo-993 car, never upgraded to the 996 Evo-spec GT1 that many would be converted to.
Should you fancy giving that 3.2-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six the full beans yourself, the 911 GT1 is noted as being eligible for a number of historic races including Le Mans Classic, the Classic 12 Hours at Sebring and Classic Daytona 24. You could always bring it back to Monterey for the Porsche Rennsport Reunion, too.
The caveat of all this is you will, unsurprisingly, need to be stonking rich. Broad Arrow has an estimate of $8.5m to $10.5m (approx. £6.6m to £8.1m).
