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Even by the standards of supercars, and nearly a decade after it was first introduced, the Porsche Carrera GT is something remarkable.
That much is clear from
the moment you climb into it, and find yourself in a cockpit trimmed
with carbonfibre, the high-tech material that F1 cars are built from.
Mike Duff
The GT's chassis and
bodywork are made from the same material. Parts of the cabin bear a
close resemblance to other modern Porsches -- the instruments and
steering wheel are almost the same as those of the 911 and Boxster --
but all similarities end once you fire up the Carrera GT's engine.
The 5.7-litre V10 motor
sits behind you, and bursts into life with a busy, purposeful noise,
responding instantly to any pressure on the throttle pedal. It sounds
like a race car engine -- indeed, it pretty much is, having originally
been created for a Le Mans program that Porsche subsequently cancelled.
And the best part of a
decade after it went on sale, the GT's mighty 605bhp power output still
makes it one of the most powerful road cars ever constructed.
Moving off is the first
big challenge. The Carrera GT was only produced with a manual gearbox,
and the engine's instant responses and a race-specification ceramic
clutch mean you have to be gentle to avoid stalling.
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Yet as soon as the
Carrera GT is moving, it starts to feel far more normal. It might have
been hyped as a road-going racer, but I found it as easy to drive as any
other Porsche. That mighty engine is happy to trundle along at low revs
and, once you've got used to the clutch, the gearshift is light and
accurate.
The GT is wider than most
cars, and its firm suspension means you have to tackle poor quality
roads slowly. If I had the money to afford one, I would definitely drive
it every day.
Start to go faster and
the Carrera GT shows a far harder edge to its personality. As a
supercar, it's been designed to go fast -- and its limits are toweringly
high. So high that, to get consistently close to them, you'd need both a
racetrack and time to learn the car's habits properly.
The engine loves to rev,
and working it as hard as it encourages you to unleashes neck-straining
acceleration that's pretty much outside the frame of reference. Porsche
claims the GT can blast from 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds, and from 0-100mph
in just 6.9 seconds. Those numbers reflect the car's ability to shrink
even the longest straights. Fortunately, its carbon-ceramic brakes are
as good at scrubbing off speed as the engine is at adding it.
Astonishing though its
straight-line pace is, it's in the corners that the GT really comes
alive. Like all Porsches, it's easy to drive quickly thanks to accurate
steering and a keenness to both change direction and to stick closely to
a chosen line.
The vast tyres offer
huge grip: you can drive the GT quicker than pretty much anything else
without ever finding its limits. And within just a few laps on track
it's possible to be pushing the car hard, reveling in the G-forces it
can develop and the feedback it offers.
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Like most modern cars,
it has a traction control system as standard -- which works to match the
power that gets sent to the rear wheels to the amount of grip available
and preventing the back of the car from sliding under power.
Most drivers will be
able to drive the GT considerably quicker if they leave the system on,
but turning it off does reveal another side to the car's character --
with what can be a sudden transition from the car gripping to sliding.
For some, that's part of the GT's appeal as a supercar, of course -- but
you've got to be extremely confident in your own abilities to consider
switching the system off.
And while some parts of
the media seem determined to portray the Carrera GT as flawed or
inherently dangerous, it's categorically not. While it's inevitable that
questions will be asked in light of this week's tragic events, we need
to wait until we have all the facts before reaching conclusions.
But the truth is that
any car offering this extreme level of performance has to be treated
with a corresponding degree of respect. Even experienced drivers like Anthony Hamilton, father of Formula 1 racer Lewis, have crashed Carrera GTs, and Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has described it as having a "savagery that's hard to explain."
The higher the limits
are, the bigger the risks when you overstep them, so if you do lose
control, you're likely to be traveling at mind-blowing speeds.
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