The Porsche 911 GT1 is a car designed and developed by German automobile manufacturer Porsche AG to compete in the GT1 class of sportscar racing, which also required a street-legal version for homologation purposes. The limited-production street-legal version developed as a result was named the 911 GT1 Straßenversion (Street version).
With the revival of international sportscar racing in the mid-1990s through the BPR Global GT Series (which then morphed into the FIA GT Championship) Porsche expressed interest in returning to top-level sportscar racing and went about developing its competitor for the GT1 category. Cars in this category were previously heavily modified versions of road cars, such as the McLaren F1 and the Ferrari F40.
However, when the 911 GT1 was unveiled in 1996, Porsche exploited the rule book to the full and stunned the sportscar fraternity. Rather than developing a race version of one of their road-going models, what they created was effectively a purpose-built sports-prototype. But in order to comply with regulations, a street-legal version was developed called the 911 GT1 Straßenversion - literally a road-going racing car.
