Porsche 911 (993) GT (1996)

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 had cutaway wings 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 magnesium spiders. In fact the body was lowered by 20mm compared to the 911 Turbo to reduce drag.