2004 Porsche 911 GT2

It sure seemed crazier back in its day.

- By Scott Evans

The first 911 Turbo gave powerful Porsches, especially turbocharged ones, their reputations as widowmakers. In that car, the difference between maximum cornering speed and the engine attempting to pass the front tires is measured in fractions of a mile per hour, and by the time you realize what's happening, it's too late to do anything about the speed. Lift, and you'll end up backward in a ditch,” folks said. Instead, you work the steering wheel like an actor driving” in front of a green screen and hope you hold it together until things straighten out, physically and emotionally.

Subsequent 964,993, and 996 generations tamed this tendency with anti-roll bars made of steel rather than cheese, but the laws of physics always lurked. That's readily apparent from our original review of the 996-gen GT2, full of warnings to watch out for its vicious side despite assurances it doesn't do anything other than what it's told to do and has no inherent bad habits but will identify and exaggerate yours.

You can imagine some trepidation today, then, climbing into a 2004 Porsche 911 GT2 fresh from Porsche's museum collection and pointing onto a racetrack. After all, this is a car that didn't adhere to anyone else's rules. The 993 GT2 was built for homologation reasons, but by the 996's arrival, priorities had shifted to the GT3 class and birthed Porsche's namesake naturally aspirated sensation, leaving GT2 engineers to do whatever the hell they wanted.

What they wanted, naturally, was more power. It had 477 hp by the end of production, an additional 62 over the contemporary 911 Turbo. But the folks in Weissach desired ultimate performance, so the 2004 GT2 is 220 pounds lighter after ditching unnecessary things such as rear seats.