Porsche’s Carrera GTS marked a return to sports car racing that would define its approach to motorsport for decades to follow. Matthew Hayward discovers a car as competitive as it was gorgeous
Photography Tim Scott
Has there ever been a more beautiful Porsche than this? There’s a longstanding argument from some enthusiasts that the Porsche Carrera GTS is one of the best-looking cars ever to have come from the Stuttgart manufacturer, and it’s easy to see why: this 44in-tall mid-engined coupé is sleek and curvy. It was built with a singular purpose, however – to win. You’d be forgiven for thinking the design had been outsourced to one of Turin’s many styling houses, but no, it was the handiwork of the Porsche design department. Specifically, Ferdinand Alexander ‘Butzi’ Porsche, the grandson of company founder Ferdinand.
After a series of lightweight, mid-engined racers – the 550 and 718 – in the late 1950s, Porsche made the decision to pursue the world of Formula 1. Aiming to compete at the very top level of motorsport would mean that any distractions in the form of sports car racing would have to be put on ice. The company spent a huge amount of money getting to a competitive level in F1, and with some good results, but at the end of the 1962 season Porsche announced that it would once again be re-focusing on other areas of the motorsport world. Ferry Porsche (Butzi’s father) simply wanted the Porsche name back in sports car racing – it was his thinking that this was where its customers could best relate to the road cars, plus it would allow a return to Le Mans. Work quickly started on a new car aimed at the under-2.0-litre Group 3 class.
Butzi worked on the design and, without the opportunity for anyone to object or to meddle in the process, it soon became a reality. This was to be a new breed of mid-engined racer, one that would be powered by a tuned twin-plug version of the 911’s all-new flat-six engine. Developing it on a tight timescale, Porsche relied heavily on the advancements it had made in F1, with much of the front suspension taken from the 804 racing car, an arrangement that consisted of unequal-length double wishbones. The rear got a unique trailing arm and reversed upper-wishbone set-up, and there were coilover spring-and-damper units at each corner. Braking was by an ATE disc set-up, similar to the 356C’s.
Homologation dictated that 100 production cars needed to be built, which would allow privateers to buy and compete in 904s around the world in various differen
