Time machine-Porsche Carrera GT review

Before I get going, I'd like to announce the winner of the photo contest And that honor goes to: McLaren.Fanboy! Congratulations!

The Porsche Carrera GT represented the best Porsche had to offer for road cars when it first debuted 15 long years ago. It had a mid mounted 5.7L V10, over 600 horsepower, and the most radical styling from that era of hypercars. It had a manual transmission which was slowly starting to be phased out as single and double clutch gearboxes became more advanced. Yet despite this appearing as a bit of a dinosaur compared to machines like the Ferrari Enzo and Lamborghini Murcielago, it was the most rewarding. The former being feeling bigger than it actually is and the latter being to cumbersome to enjoy fully. The CGT feels big (because it is) but it doesn’t feel it like the Enzo or heavy like the Murcielago.

To drive it is to drive it hard. In order to get the most out of the Carrera GT, you need to drive it like you stole it. However the PR people at Porsche told me not to because it’s worth about $1,000,000. So, after I was told to drive it gently, I chose to drive it around town for a bit, return it in the same condition of which it was loaned to me. After that I found one for sale with a fair bit of miles on it (about 10,000 or so) and bought it. Yes I bought myself a Porsche Carrera GT. Granted it was quite expensive but it was nowhere near what the one I loaned was. All in it was a mere $400,000. It needed some things like new tires and clutch but those were expenses I was willing to pay for. Once that was taken care of, I didn’t have to listen to Porsche’s PR team telling me to drive it lightly. So I didn’t.

The first thing you notice about the Carrera GT is how light the clutch is. It’s very easy to engage (but can get a little fiddly at times) and for in town driving, it won’t wear your leg out after 2 stoplights. Something else I noticed right away was the noise. I was in Edinburgh so the noise echoed but damn is it loud at low revs. I only got it up to around 2000 rpm when I went to leave but it sounded like an wolf howling at the moon. Soon I exited Edinburgh and had a chance to open up the absolute beast of a motor.

Lemme just run through some of the main figures
-5.7 liters of displacement
-10 cylinder arranged in a vee
-605 horsepower
-8400 rpm redline

Those figures might not seem like a lot today but there’s not a whole lot of car to move around (about 3000 pounds). This makes it feel faster than what the on-paper stats suggest. I clocked a 0-60 in 3.4 seconds however I wasn’t able to make it to the drag strip at the time because it was raining when I got there, however when I do I’ll publish a time (should be around the 11 second mark). Another reason it’s so fast is the mid-range acceleration. A high revving naturally aspirated engine shouldn’t be able to deliver power in the way that it does. I did a 4th gear pull from 30 mph all the way to 145 and was still pulling hard when I lifted. It feels like a hybrid in the way the power is sent to the ground.

Anyways, I soon turned off the motor way and drove to the coastal road and went ball to the wall and I could trust it because the grip is mind boggling. It doesn’t come with any sort of electronic aid except ABS but frankly it doesn’t need it. There is so much grip, especially in the high speed corners that I could stay flat almost the entire way, only lifting when there was traffic. But, just because there’s a lot of grip doesn’t mean that you can’t slack off. There is a tendency for the tail to step out if you aren’t careful with the throttle and it caught me off guard a few times. However you have to keep in mind that this isn’t a new car. It’s quite the opposite actually. It’s 2 years younger than I am and at times it feels it. The interior looks dated, the brakes (as good as they are) lack the bite you find with something like a 720S, and the ride lacks the versatility of say a 911 Turbo.

Even though it’s not as advanced as modern supercars, don’t expect it to be. You’d be missing the point. It’s an analog supercar when it first came out and it’s an analog supercar now and if you have half a million credits, I would deeply suggest you buy one immediately.