Could that be 1500 built then?
Porsche is pulling the plug on the Carrera GT supercar only three years into its life, before it reaches the end of its planned production run.
Stuttgart only ever planned to make 1,500 of them but the 1,111th has only just been delivered -- presumably in the face of falling demand; there have been widespread stories of slow sales. In spite of that, Porsche has dubbed the car "the most successful high-performance sports car of all time".
Over half the cars made since its induction in September 2000 have gone to US-based customers, as will the last one, which Porsche will deliver in April.
It may not have sold well but it's a mighty machine: its mid-mounted 612bhp 5.7-litre V10 propels the £316,888 car to 60mph in just 3.8 seconds, and on to a top speed of over 200mph. The engine was based on a design that Porsche could have used for a Le Mans car, had it been so minded.
Innovations include a lightweight gearbox with features such as an inner gearshift mechanism combined with low-friction, precisely-mounted Flexball shift cables on the outer shift mechanisms, and a ceramic clutch. The two-plate, dry clutch is only 169mm in diameter, helping to give the engine and transmission a very low centre of gravity. It's also the world's first production car with a monocoque chassis and module frame made of carbon-fibre reinforced plastic.
As for why it didn't sell, who can say? Early tests suggested that it wasn't as easy to live with as it might have been -- the clutch caused some issues -- but ask yourself: if you had £300k to spare, would the Carrera GT have been on your list?
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