Lean, mean and ready for more than just a few laps of your local motor circuit is this eye-catching super-rare 1970 Porsche 916/6 GT. You’re not going to miss its Canary Yellow paintwork in the car park. That’s if the aggressive, lower stance hasn’t already brought you up short, that and those wide Fuchs alloys, just about fitting in widened wheel arches. You wouldn’t think this ready to race 1970 Porsche is based on a low point in Porsche history, but it is.
Wide, low stance conceals the base 1970 Porsche. Unloved when it went on sale, basic Porsche 914 was a collaboration with VW and those roots meant that aficionados scorned its slightly clumsy design. Porsche shoe-horned a flat-six engine into the back to produce the 916 and then, in a bid for racing credibility, asked its storied Race Department to produce a competition version. The result was that in 1970 Porsche homologated the 916/6 GT, on the way to a class victory at Le Mans. Sixty were due to be made. Porsche records show that just 13 were completed in a nut-and-bolt hand rebuild of each production 1970 Porsche 916. Super rare-indeed.
Vendors of the 1970 Porsche say that in the process of transformation from meek road to ferocious race car "little more remained than the original monocoque and the original car’s shadow when completed”. Fibre glass replaces steel on many body panels, steel wheel arches are to the maximum width allowed to house those Fuchs alloys, wider at the back than the front. Interior is stripped back and lightweight, but still boasts a proper leather rimmed Porsche steering wheel. Rear window is plastic. Koni Competition supplied lowered shock absorbers. But it’s what’s under that rear fibre glass engine cover that propelled the 1970 Porsche 916/6GT to racing stardom.
Porsche installed an uprated 2.0-litre flat six engine, derived from that in a contemporary 911s, and providing 212 bhp to power a 1970 Porsche that was now very light indeed. It’s going to be fast, as other competitors in its class at Le Mans discovered. This particular example has led a cosseted existence and so that flat six is still likely to push you back in your seat as you approach Paddock Hill Bend at Brands Hatch.
The 1970 Porsche 916/6 GT has been lovingly looked after, as we’ve said. And it’s now looking for a new keeper, hopefully to use it in the way that Porsche Race Department intended: going very fast on track, rather than lingering in an air conditioned collection with an occasional outing to a manicured concours lawn. Munich specialists Schaltkulisse will happily sell you this 1970 Porsche, but there’s a significant catch. Rarity, desirability and condition combine to add up to a price tag of £595,000. Our advice: buy that lottery ticket, and make plans for your first track outing.
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