Porsche WSC-95 was a Le Mans Prototype. For an engine, Porsche would use one of their longest running motors, the Type-935 turbocharged Flat-6. Originally used in the Porsche 956 in the 1980s, the engine was still powerful enough to power modern prototypes. While Porsche’s new 911 GT1s would use a 3.2 Liter engine, the WSC-95 would use a smaller 3.0 Liter engine. Although smaller, this gave the WSC-95 a better fuel economy then the 911 GT1, which would be useful over long race distances. The WSC-95 actually saw very little race action even though it managed to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in both 1996 and 1997 without actually being acknowledged as a factory supported project. It would later be upgraded to the Porsche LMP1-98 before being retired. Only two cars would ever be built.
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Porsche 956 is a Group C sports-prototype racing car. The Porsche 956 features a chassis made of an aluminum monocoque, a first for the company, helping to allow the car to meet the 800 kg (1764 lb) weight minimum in Group C. The engine is the same as the one used in the Porsche 936, the Type-935 2.65 L turbocharged Flat-6, producing approximately 635 hp (474 kW). A new 5-speed gearbox was also designed for the Porsche 956. High downforce aerodynamics allowed the car to be capable of reaching 350 km/h (217 mph) on the Mulsanne Straight at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Porsche 956 made its debut at the Silverstone 6 Hour race, the second round of the World Championship for Makes with Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell driving for the factory. After missing the following round at the 1000 km Nürburgring for developmental reasons, the Ickx/Bell unit reappeared at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Porsche Cayenne is a five-seat mid-size luxury sport utility vehicle. It is the first V8 engined vehicle built by Porsche since 1995. Porsche intended the Cayenne to be the new benchmark for SUVs. The Porsche Cayenne’s frame and doors are sourced from Volkswagen, who also use the frames and doors for the Volkswagen Touareg model. All other aspects of vehicle design, tuning, production are done in house at Porsche. VW also supplies this ‘E platform’ to Audi to underpin their Q7 model. The Cayenne shares only its V6 engine with the Touareg and Porsche’s version is substantially modified.
The Porsche Carrera GT is powered by an all-new 5.7 liter V10 engine producing 612 DIN (605 SAE) horsepower (450 kW) whereas the original concept car featured a 5.5 liter version rated at 558 hp (416 kW). Porsche claims it will accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62.5 mph) in 3.9 seconds and has a maximum speed of 334 km/h (207 mph), although road tests indicated that in reality the car could accelerate from 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds and 0-100 mph in 6.8 seconds, while 0-125 mph in 9.9. The Porsche Carrera GT has a basic five color paint scheme which includes Guards Red, Fayence Yellow, Basalt Black, GT Silver and Seal Grey. Custom colors were also available from the factory. A traditional six-speed manual transmission is the only available transmission, in contrast to its rival the Enzo Ferrari which is only offered with a computer actuated paddle shifted manual gearbox. Attached to this gearbox is a birch/ash gearknob which pays homage to the wooden gearknob used in the Porsche 917 Le Mans racers. With the Enzo Ferrari priced initially around $660,000, the Porsche Carrera GT base price of $444,400 makes the dream of owning a piece of Le Mans inspired technology somewhat more attainable. The Porsche Carrera GT costs $515,000 Canadian dollars, or 390,000 €.
The Porsche 911 GT1 was a racing car designed for competition in the GT1 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and sold as a road car for homologation purposes. The street-legal version was labeled the 911 GT1. Porsche debuted the 911 GT1 in 1995, announcing that it would compete at the 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans. In spite of its name, the car actually has very little in common with the 911, its floorpan was taken from the 956/962 Group C car. In addition, the GT1 featured a water-cooled, twin-turbocharged and intercooled, four valve per cylinder flat-six in a mid-mounted position and making about 600 horsepower (450 kW). In comparison, the 993 generation 911 GT2, which was otherwise the company’s highest-performance vehicle, used an air-cooled engine with only two valves per cylinder and mounted in the rear, which is the traditional layout for the 911.
The Porsche 959 is a sports car manufactured by Porsche AG from 1986 to 1989, first as a Group B rally car and later as a legal production car designed to satisfy FIA homologation regulations requiring that a minimum number of street legal units be built. During its production run, it was hailed as being the most technologically advanced road-going sports car ever built and the harbinger of the future of sports cars: it was one of the first high-performance vehicles to use an all-wheel-drive system; it provided the basis for Porsche’s first all-wheel-drive Carrera 4 model; and it convinced Porsche executives of the system’s viability so well that they chose to make all-wheel-drive standard on all versions of the 911 Turbo starting with the 993 variant. During its lifetime, the vehicle had only one other street legal peer with comparable performance, the Ferrari F40 . The 959′s short production run – 268 road legal versions were built – and astonishing performance have kept values high.
The Porsche 928 featured a large, front-mounted and water-cooled V8 engine driving the rear wheels. Originally displacing 4.5 L and featuring a single overhead camshaft design, it produced 219 hp (163 kW/222 PS) for the North American market and 240 PS (176 kW/237 hp) in other markets. Porsche upgraded the engine from mechanical to electronic fuel injection in 1980 for US models, although power remained the same. This design marked a major change in direction for Porsche (started with the introduction of the 924 in 1976), whose cars had until then used only rear- or mid-mounted air-cooled flat engines with four or six cylinders. Porsche engineers wanted a large-displacement motor to power the 928, and prototype units were built with a 5.0 L V8 producing close to 300 hp (220 kW). Very early units used one four-barrel carburetor, which was eventually tossed in favor of Bosch’s K-Jetronic fuel injection system. When increasing concern within the company over the pricing and availability of fuel during the oil crisis of the 1970s became an issue of contention, smaller engines were considered in the interest of fuel economy. Some managers began pushing for development of a 3.3 L 180 hp (130 kW) powerplant they had drawn up specs for, but company engineers balked at this suggestion. Both sides finally settled on a 4.5 L, SOHC 16-valve V8 producing 240 PS (237 hp/177 kW) (219 hp (163 kW) in North America), which they considered to have an acceptable compromise of performance and fuel economy.
