Ralph Bossino

The Porsche Carrera GT is automotive refinery at its best, it is literally a masterpiece of engineering. The attention to detail and engineering are performed to perfection.

Lets start off with what most are interested in, the engine. The engine started out as a 5.5 litre V10 that was all set to be used in the racing car at Le Mans, but a last-minute rule change favoured smaller turbo units so the programme was put on the shelf. However, instead of it sitting there collecting dust for years, Porsche’s racing division handed over its stillborn engine to the road-car people. Here’s where the things start to change a bit. Due to emission regulations and so forth, it meant the engine had to go under a few changes. It meant adding a third piston ring, which in turn meant fitting longer pistons, which then took the engine up from a 5.5L to a an even bigger 5.7L monster.

The car is still quite raw as opposed to it’s sexy sleek lines and luxurious interior. It still utilises a ceramic clutch. And the best part of all, the power remained too, in-fact an extra 54bhp to a whopping 612bhp and 435lb/torque. All this power is put down by a standard 6-speed manual transmission. Instead of going fancy with power/computer assisted, paddle shifting transmissions that many of the others like Ferrari and Lamborghini are resorting to, Porsche stays true to the joy a car enthusiasts has in shifting gears on his own accord.

There’s an emissions control system and an on-board diagnostics setup that continually monitors exhaust. The engine cylinders are coated with a combination of nickel and silicon to reduce wear; each of the two banks of cylinders has its own exhaust system with primary and main catalytic converters; a cross-flow system cools each cylinder individually to keep the engine temperature constant.

Ok, so the engine is wonderful, great power, race engine; but that’s not where the masterpiece of engineering lies. That lies with the aerodynamics, weight, and the way Porsche went about building this car. The Carrera GT comes in at a weight of 1,380 kg (Ferrari F430, 1,450 kg; Lamborghini Gallardo, 1,569 kg). The engine itself only weighs 205 kg. Instead of metal, its chassis is made of strong, lightweight, carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP), also known simply as carbon fibre. Porsche developed a new, more responsive clutch technology for the Carrera GT; the Porsche Ceramic Composite Clutch (PCCC) has a rotating mass approximately 10 times lighter than other clutches. The brakes are even unique to Porsche; the Porsche Ceramic Composite Brake (PCCB) system is lighter than conventional brakes and is extremely responsive: the Carrera GT can go from 100mph to a halt within just a few feet of road: 60-0mph in 2.5 sec; 0-100-0mph in 11.6 sec. The wheels are forged magnesium, further reducing weight from conventional aluminium alloy. Wheel sizes come in at 19 x 9.5 front and 20 x 12.5 rear wearing 265/35/ZR 19F, 335/30 ZR 20r tyres.

Now you see all that, you’d figure it should weigh a lot less than 1,380 kg; but this is where the luxury part comes in. The bucket seats and interior are wrapped in fine leather, one-touch automatic windows and electronically adjustable, heated mirrors which all add weight to the car. The Carrera can also be outfitted with a navigation system and a BOSE stereo system. It has front and side impact air bags, anti-lock braking and traction control. It even has a tire-pressure monitoring system in each of the four wheels.

This is all just scratching the surface of the innovations Porsche has gone through in designing and building this car. Porsche claims that over 75 technology patents have been filed during the development of the Carrera GT. That’s more than some car manufacturers have filed in their whole existence. Quite astonishing for a single car produced in very limited quantities.