• A turbocharged Porsche power juggernaut, the GT2 is essentially a stiffer version of the 911 Turbo.
• Only 300 GT2s were delivered to the US in the 996 era, and with very low mileage, this example represents excellent potential.
• The Bring a Trailer auction ends on January 29.
The GT2 is a car with a certain reputation—rare, raw, with a lineage that stretches back to the original “Widowmaker” 930 Turbo. Now, with this auction on Bring a Trailer, is your chance to experience one of the most robust Porsche 911s ever built.
For the uninitiated, this is just another silver 911, and judging by the oval headlights, not even one that’s really desirable. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll see yellow calipers that reveal carbon ceramic brakes, a unique rear wing and a subtle GT2 script on the back. This is no mere pedestrian Neunelfer; monsters lurk here.
While the GT3 is more of a track star destined for a mid-corner battle with the Corvette Z06, the GT2 is essentially an unknown 911 Turbo: lighter, more powerful and stripped of driver aids like electronic stability control. If GT3 is a scalpel, GT2 is more clay, and if you’re not careful, you might send a limb or two to Tucumcari. Like the 930 before it, the GT2 doesn’t suffer gladly.
Out back, the GT2 received the same 3.6-liter flat-six as the Turbo of its day, but with a larger turbocharger, more cooling and reprogrammed software. Power is up nearly 15 percent to 474 horsepower, and removing all-wheel drive helps shed about 220 pounds. Fat carbon ceramic brakes are standard, certainly helpful when approaching the GT2’s stated top speed of 196 mph.
Driving the car in Germany in 2001, we noted that the GT2 “demands unblinking concentration as the speedometer needle spins toward the top end of the scale… an eye-opening drive—but a hell of an addiction. Along with the GT2’s insistence of ‘Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,’ there’s an implicit line of denial, a serious driver’s message that says something like, ‘Look, schmuck, I’m not your mother. You’re on your own here.'”
The example for this auction is a 2003 US market car, and it is near perfect, with all relevant documentation present. With three days to go, bidding is at $155,000, though that number will likely rise as the end draws near.
This one only has 4000 miles on the odometer and is finished in silver with a black interior. 996-era interiors generally haven’t held up well over the years, but this car has all kinds of well-preserved leather trim inside, and it presents as efficient and businesslike—just as you’d want in a Porsche.
While this GT2 may be a luxury investment, if you bring this GT2 home, please drive it. It won’t make much difference if it has 4000 miles or 6000 miles on the clock, and the current owner recently changed most of the engine consumables, including a new set of spark plugs. Lucky buyers owe it to themselves to get at least one blast of turbocharged Porsche adrenaline behind the wheel of this car.
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