Porsche Carrera GT

The Porsche Carrera GT (Project Code 980) is a mid-enginedsupercar that was manufactured by Porsche between 2004–2007 in Leipzig,Germany. Sports Car International named the Carrera GT number one on its list of Top Sports Cars of the 2000s, and number eight on Top Sports Cars of All Time list.

History

The development of the Carrera GT can be traced back to the 911 GT1 and LMP1-98 racing cars. Due in part to the FIA and ACO rule changes in 1998, both designs had ended. Porsche at the time had planned on a new Le Mans prototype for 1999. The car was initially intended to use a turbocharged flat-6, but was later redesigned to use a new V10 engine, pushing the project back to planned completion in 2000. The V10 was a unit secretly built by Porsche for the Footwork Formula One team in 1992, but later shelved. The engine was resurrected for the Le Mans prototype and increased in size to 5.7 litres. The project was canceled after two days of testing for the first car, in mid-1999, mostly due to Porsche's wish to build the Cayenne SUV with involvement from Volkswagen and Audi, thus requiring engineering expertise to be pulled from the motorsports division. It was also speculated that VW-Audi chairman Ferdinand Piëch wanted Audi's new Le Mans Prototype, the Audi R8 not to face competition from Porsche in 2004.

Porsche Carrera

Carrera (Spanish for "race" and "career") is a brand of Porsche automobile. The name commemorates the company's success in the Carrera Panamericana race.

The following vehicles have been called Carrera:

Porsche 911

The Porsche 911 (pronounced Nine Eleven or German: Neunelf) is a two-door, 2+2 high performance sports car made since 1963 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted six cylinder boxer engine and all round independent suspension. It has undergone continuous development, though the basic concept has remained little changed. The engines were air-cooled until the introduction of the Type 996 in 1998, with Porsche's "993" series, produced in model years 1995-1998, being the last of the air-cooled Porsches.

The 911 has been modified by private teams and by the factory itself for racing, rallying, and other forms of automotive competition. It is among the most successful competition cars. In the mid-1970s, naturally aspirated 911 Carrera RSRs won major world championship sports car races such as Targa Florio, Daytona, Sebring, and Nürburgring, even against prototypes. The 911-derived 935 turbo also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1979.

In the 1999 international poll for the award of Car of the Century, the 911 came fifth. It is one of two in the top five that had remained continuously in production (the original Beetle remained in production until 2003), and was until 1998 a successful surviving application of the air- (now water-) cooled opposed rear-engine layout pioneered by its ancestor, the Volkswagen Beetle. It is one of the oldest sports coupé nameplates still in production, and 820,000 had been sold by the car's 50th anniversary in 2013. "Around 150,000 911 cars from the model years 1964 to 1989 are still on the road today."

Porsche 356

The Porsche 356 is a luxury sports car which was first produced by Austrian company Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH (1948-1949), and then by German company Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH (1950-1965). It was Porsche's first production automobile. Earlier cars designed by the Austrian company includes Cisitalia Grand Prix race car, and the Volkswagen Beetle as well as Auto Union Grand Prix cars were designed by the German company.

The 356 was a lightweight and nimble-handling rear-engine rear-wheel-drive 2-door sports car available in hardtop coupé and open configurations. Engineering innovations continued during the years of manufacture, contributing to its motorsports success and popularity. Production started in 1948 at Gmünd, Austria, where approximately 50 cars were built. In 1950 the factory relocated to Zuffenhausen, Germany, and general production of the 356 continued until April 1965, well after the replacement model 911 made its autumn 1963 debut. Of the 76,000 originally produced, approximately half survive.