Preceded by the Porsche 911 GT1 and succeeded by the Porsche GT1, you will find the Porsche Carrera GT.  This supercar hit a production run in 2004 that ended in 2006.  Yes, for a delivery charge of just $5,000, a Porsche Carrera GT would have been delivered right to your door. Now you can see why Imagine Lifestyles added this to the biggest luxury list on the web. 

That really isn’t too steep for a luxury car that sold for an MSRP of around $440,000 USD.  Tack on a dealer invoice of around $14,800, and the Porsche Carrera GT boasted a price tag of around $421,000.  Nice.  So what went wrong? 

The original production run called for around 1,500 of the Carrera GT models to emerge onto the market, but Porsche announced in 2005 that production of the supercar would come to a screeching halt, citing a change in U.S. airbag regulations.  Lame.  So as of May 6, 2006, 1,270 Carrera GT’s had been manufactured, with a mere 604 sold to the United States.  I am assuming the cost to convert the design plan and budget of the Carrera GT to conform to the new airbag regulations was deemed excessive. 

Getting down to specs, the Porsche Carrera GT is powered by a 5.7-liter V10 engine kicking out 605 horsepower.  This is in stark contrast to the original concept Carrera GT, which featured a 5.5-liter version with 558 horses.  The Carrera GT hits the 0-60 mark in around 3.5 seconds with a top speed of 205 miles per hour.   A six speed manual transmission was the only option, which makes it a driving enthusiast’s choice.
 

As far as aesthetics, this luxury Porsche came in five basic colors:

•    Guards red
•    Fayence yellow
•    Basalt black
•    GT silver
•    Seal grey

Owners could custom order colors from the factory.  The Carrera GT features oversized side inlets and air dams to cool the larger sized V10 engine, framed by a carbon fiber rear bonnet.  So how do you stop a supercar that powerful?  With carbon fiber reinforced Silicon Carbide ceramic composite brakes, of course.  The brakes are ridiculously effective and equally attractive.  To show off, a rear wing spoiler deploys at speeds of around 70 miles per hour.  Wouldn’t this be a perfect car to add to our fleet of Miami luxury rental cars or our every growing amount of Chicago exotic rental cars?

The interior of the Porsche Carrera GT is predictably plush, with soft leather, Bose audio system, navigation system and other luxe options.  I will close with a fun fact:  the ignition is located to the left of the steering column, paying homage to the early days of Le Mans racing when drivers where required to make a running start, hop into their cars, start them and race.  That way, the driver could start the Porsche with one hand, and put it into gear with the other.  Awesome.
 

 

Don’t miss our Porsche rentals and other luxury car rentals on your way out!

 

 

 

 

Post by Imagine Lifestyles Luxury Rentals