The Geneva Motor Show in March will be a landmark show for Porsche fans. Whilst the focus of attention has been the god-awful Cayenne for the last couple of years, the company is about to do sports car fans a huge favour with the release of the Carrera GT.
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Forget 4x4's and mollycoddling kids and let's get back to good looking, two seater supercars with monstrously powerful engines.
The Carrera GT features a new engine that should get the spine tingling. The race derived 5.7 litre V10 pumps out a numpty bashing 612bhp at 8,000rpm. The benchmark 60mph can be reached in 3.9 seconds whilst top speed has already been tested at 205mph. The Carrera GT weighs in at 1380kg.
Porsche developed a new construction concept for road and racing vehicles. The Carrera GT's monocoque and entire sub-frame are made of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP), and Porsche has applied to patent this technology.
Even the underbody is completely cased in carbon fibre to achieve ground effects and suck the car down onto the road at extreme speeds. To the car, Porsche have used their new ceramic Composite Brake (PCCB) system first seen on the GT2. There's also a ceramic clutch controlling power to the unique six speed manual gearbox.
Light magnesium wheels are used with specially developed tyres - 265/35 ZR 19 on the front, and 335/30 ZR 20 on the rear.
Despite the original concept car being open top, Porsche have caved in to the need for some practicality and produced a simple roof. It consists of two individual carbon fibre lightweight shells, each weighing only 2.4 kilos. These shells can be stored in the front luggage compartment.
The first Carrera GT models are being produced at the Porsche plant in Leipzig, Germany and will be delivered to customers at the end of 2003.
Download: Carrera GT Screensaver for Windows (1MB)