THE RACE CAR THAT COULD'VE BEEN– AND THE SUPERCAR THAT WAS

MEET THE DEAD PORSCHE LE MANS CONTENDER THAT LED TO THE CARRERA GT

- GARY WATKINS

Codenamed the 9R3, Porsche's abandoned Le Mans contender hit the track again 25 years after its initial shakedown runs, in the hands of Timo Bernhard (main) and original driver Allan McNish (top).

June is 24 Hours of Le Mans time, and this year's edition of the unrivaled sports car contest—the 93rd running of the endurance classic—inspired us to look back nearly 26 years on an oft-forgotten factory-built Porsche contender that didn’t get its chance to claim an overall win at France's Circuit de la Sarthe. And while racing fans were robbed of the chance to witness a then-new piece of Porsche motorsports history, performance car enthusiasts benefited from the company's decision to kill the project.

The thing was “going to be a flier,” Bob Wollek reckoned. The grizzled Porsche veteran, who was still looking for his first overall Le Mans win at the age of 56, had high hopes for the German manufacturer's latest contender. But along with Allan McNish, who followed him into the cockpit, Wollek had no idea it was already consigned to history. A machine known generally as the LMP2000 and codenamed 9R3 never saw a green flag but instead spawned an all-new Porsche supercar, the Carrera GT—and at least one “conspiracy” theory. Indeed, when Wollek and McNish sampled the car built ostensibly for Porsche's return to Le Mans in 2000 after a year’s hiatus, they had no idea of the politics behind it. It was, says then-Porsche Motorsport boss Herbert Ampferer, “a complicated story.”