Background
Motorsport is Porsche’s most important test lab, and the stats very much back this up, with nearly two thirds of the race victories being notched up by the 911. There is no denying that Porsches victorious journey all over the world started with 4 wins on the Monte Carlo Rally.
Londoner and racing legend ‘Quick’ Vic Elford and Pauli Toivonen took the first Monte win in 1968, with Bjorn Waldgard and Gerard Larrousse securing wins in 1969, 1970 and Jean-Pierre Nicolas in 1978. Porsche secured the overall 1970 European Rally Championship in 1970. However, the 1971 season, saw Porsche lose out to the Renault Alpine A110 and this led the Stuttgart minds to believe that the 911 was ultimately too big to be a huge rally star so they pretty much walked away from rallying to concentrate on the circuits. In spite of this Jean-Luc Thérier did claim first place on the Tour de Corse in 1980.
In 1984 Porsche were back, this time entering three cars into the renowned Paris Dakar Rally taking the overall win with the 953 a four wheel drive 911 driven by René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne. This car was designed purely for the Dakar and was essentially a test bed for the Rothmans 959 which replaced it only 12 months later. Porsche returned to the Dakar with the 959 in 1985 but huge disappointment struck as all of the three cars entered failed to finish. The following year they were determined that their new model would succeed and this time they took no prisoners with a solid 1-2 finish again driven by René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne.
A works rally 911 has nevertheless been a fairly rare occurrence, with the handful of rally cars in the sixties and the SC-RS in the eighties.
It took until 2000’s before another series of works rally cars were built. Ten cars were specially developed for the Future World team in Belgium in collaboration with former race manager Hartmut Kristen by Porsche Motorsport in Weissach under the name RS GT3 Road Challenge. Porsche Motorsport took a road going GT3 RS chassis and built it into a fully fledged rally car, specifically for the Belgian Rally Championship. Gérard Magniette, owner of the Future World Rally Team still owns the first car. All in all the 996 GT3 RS Road Challenge is probably the smallest Porsche-production series ever made. Even the rare 1968 911R was produced in larger numbers.
This Car
Is to the same spec as the rare works Porsche Futureworld 996 GT3 Cup Rally cars of which only 10 were built. Originally a 2001 model that was upgraded to the 2003 Porsche 996 GT3 Cup car spec, the front of which has been changed to a Carrera 2, making space for the spare wheel and therefore aiding weight distribution and ultimately balance.
Its competition history began in Germany as a race car, before being sold into Belgium, where it was originally raced before being converted to the works rally spec and rallied in Slovakia.
It was then placed into storage in Germany for a number of years before being bought by its current owner and used on Slowly Sideways events.
Technical
Engine: 3.6ltr Flat inline
Cylinders: 6
Aspiration: Naturally Aspirated
Valves: 24
Camshafts: DOHC
Carburetion: Injected
Transmission: 6 speed
Drive: Rear Wheel
BHP: 370
