Porsche’s finest sports car first wowed the public back in 2003 with carbon ceramic brakes and 600 hp – now a new concept wows with even more panache.
HotCars artist Timothy Adry Emmanuel brings us another render from the Sports Car Hall Of Fame; except this one could really get described as a supercar. Back in 2003 the Porsche Carrera GT was a supercar to all intents and purposes.
For the bargain price of $450,000 in 2003 – about $750,000 today – the Carrera brought with it carbon ceramic brakes, a 5.7-liter V10 with 600 hp and distinctive styling that showed the world the power of Porsche’s design house.
It looked elegant, fresh and today seems to have aged well. YouTuber Doug DeMuro has one. But, as cliché as it is, times have moved on and Porsche brought back the GT (which they absolutely should), how would it look?
Chances are, a lot like this render, which fuses the iconic styling of two decades ago with some modern Porsche touches and a little magic.
This exclusive render paints a realistic picture of how the car might look if it got reintroduced in 2023.
The Return Of The Porsche Carrera GT In 2023
Carrera means ‘race’ in Spanish, and many Porsches have carried the name, but this car was different. This car stemmed from a concept car called the Carrera GT, and it emerged with a rear-mid engine setup and a special V10, derived from plans for a Formula 1 and Le Mans engine.
Innovative brakes and big power meant that the machine was fast, the Carrera GT could manage 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds, with a top speed of nearly 210 mph. So, only around 1200 got made, and they were very expensive, but the GT remains an icon. Porsche hasn’t brought back a supercar like this since, although modern 911s like the 992 are certainly capable of supercar-like speed and dynamics.
Today’s Porsche 911 offers up to 640 hp, can hit 60 mph in 2.6 seconds and carry on up to 205 mph. If it returned today, the 2023 Porsche Carrera GT would likely feature a hybrid – or even fully-electric – powertrain. Timothy Adry Emmanuel’s render, though, is gasoline-powered.
The New Porsche Carrera GT Defies All Odds By Returning Without Batteries
As we can see in the render model, there are quad-exhaust outlets up back, air ducts ahead of the rear wheels and an intake up front for engine air and brake cooling.
As such, we can only speculate on what kind of powerplant would get used, but the same twin-turbocharged flat-6 from the 992 Turbo S seems more likely than Porsche bringing back the V10.
It would no doubt be too polluting for the world we live in today and expensive to reengineer – it also makes less power than the 992’s potent, efficient engine.
Up front, it’s easy to guess what this car got intended to be at first glance. That’s because it retains the familiar front end and those attractive lights, the elegant hood. It’s gotten modernized and made more angular, the front grill is one open-mouthed inlet. But the rest of the car follows the same rule book and that’s no bad thing, as it receives a nip and tuck here and there to make it look as fresh as it did back then.
Up back, past the familiar side scoops and brake vents – but new wheels – returns the rear wing, but the aging trunk lights of the original icon get replaced by a modern light bar; inspired by Porsche’s current design philosophy. It’s still clearly a Carrera GT, but it wouldn’t look out of place in a showroom. We bet Porsche won’t revive the Carrera GT nameplate soon, but if they did, here’s proof that there’s still mileage in that Harm Lagaay silhouette. If you’re interested in buying one in 2023, the Porsche Carrera GT has an average value of $1.2 million, which firmly places it in the hands of collectors and investors.
