Surprises are rare in the auto industry, where secrets are routinely spilled by spy photos, orchestrated news leaks and calculated rumors. Yet Porsche kept its Carrera GT a secret until it was unveiled at the Louvre last fall, on the first morning of Mondial de l’Automobile.
No one was expecting a midengine roadster, vacuum-packed in a carbon-fiber body, powered by a 5.5-liter, naturally aspirated V-10 producing 558 horsepower and 442 foot-pounds of torque. That is enough to propel the 2,750-pound car from a standing start to 124 miles an hour in less than 10 seconds, Porsche says, on its way to a top speed of more than 205 m.p.h.
Wendelin Wiedeking, president and chief executive of Porsche, was careful to note that such numbers were “provisional,” and that a production version, if the car is built, would probably be faster.
The Carrera GT will almost certainly become available, at a price that executives estimated at $350,000. The car is a design study, but it represents too much of the small company’s material and emotional capital to be a whim. Wiedeking said the company pulled out of the 24 Hours of Le Mans competition two years ago so its race team could craft this street version of the company’s Le Mans prototype car.
This race heritage is evident in the 14-inch ceramic-composite brakes, six-speed sequential gearbox and pushrod suspension, competition gear of the highest order.
The car will some aficionados who saw Porsche’s absence from Le Mans, and its new sport-utility project, as signs that it was losing touch with its heritage.
