What Is This Mysterious Porsche 911 GT1 Restomod Spotted At LAX?
The original 993-based Porsche 911 GT1Photo: Porsche
Nostalgia is all the rage right now in the car world, and especially nostalgia for the 1990s era of driver-focused simplicity. No auto company leverages its history to better effect than Porsche, and that sentiment extends to the legion of Porsche modification and restoration companies out there. One of those such companies is on the verge of unveiling a new throwback supercar heavily influenced by (and maybe even based on) the 911 GT1 built between 1995 and 1998. Posted to the r/whatisthiscar Reddit, this car was spotted on the tarmac at LAX, presumably en route to a formal unveiling at the Monterey Car Week festivities that are kicking off next week.
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I reached out to Porsche for a statement about this car’s existence, and a spokesperson stated they are not aware of the car’s origins or backgrounds, though agreed with me when I said it “looked cool.” Porsche isn’t new to rebodying its current sports cars to look more like its old race cars, look no farther than 2019’s track-only 935, essentially a rebodied GT2 RS, so it wouldn’t have been out of the realm of possibility for this to be a Porsche project.
So, if Porsche is to be believed and this car isn’t Porsche-sanctioned at all, that leaves a lot of possibilities as to where it came from. There are dozens of international Porsche hot rodders who could be responsible. The Rufs, Gemballas, Tuthills, and Singers of the world would not be beyond releasing a quasi-throwback GT1-aping Porsche-based supercar with big turbocharged flat-six power. For the few that would be built, there are surely a hundred well-heeled Porsche enthusiasts who would put their name on one and work diligently to fit it with as many expensive options as can be added.
Based on the fact that the car is at LAX, I’m inclined to believe it isn’t from Singer, as the Los Angeles-based company surely would have trucked the car to Monterey if it were theirs. Did this car just get off a trans-Atlantic flight? Or did a new company from Asia build it? Hopefully all will be known soon enough. Whoever built this car, it looks cool as hell, and I want to drive it.
