Porsche 911 (993) GT2 Clubsport ‘Evo’: Classic Drive
The 993-series Porsche 911 GT2 Clubsport may be close to the ultimate driver’s car, but what if the Zuffenhausen-based brand’s track special is also embellished with Evo modifications? Well, buckle up! We drive one of the “purest 911s” in existence.
I think it’s only appropriate to start this feature with the opening statement of this car’s custodian (at the time) – a Porsche collector and racer, no less. “It is the purest, most brutal, rawest production 911 I have ever driven,” he said – I couldn’t wait to find out if he was correct about the 911 GT2 Clubsport “Evo”.
IMAGES: Charles Pullen
This particular example started life as an original GT2 Clubsport version of the 993-series Porsche 911, and as many of you will know, the Clubsport is stripped of any unnecessary interior comforts. There are no carpets, aircon, or sound deadening.
GT2 Clubsport is a pukka track special
The interior and roll cage are painted the same colour as the exterior, while safety equipment includes a driver’s harness, a battery kill switch and racing bucket seats. In place of the dual-mass flywheel, the Clubsport came with a clutch disc with torsional dampers, all of which reduces weight even further.
Other standard Porsche 911 (993) GT2 fitments include the race-inspired, 3-piece, magnesium five-spoke Speedline alloy wheels. Bending down on my knees, I place my thumb between the extended wheel arch and the tyre, and it’s a snug fit – that’s all the clearance there is. The 993-series GT2 also featured power steering, but Porsche gave it a more direct ratio, which we will discuss shortly.
Up front, the suspension towers are connected with a strut brace (needed to keep this car stiff for the track), while the battery is mounted as low as possible to reduce the car’s centre of gravity. Yet, as this is supposedly also a car “for the road”, there’s a space-saver spare wheel fixed to the floor!
However, the single most important fact about the GT2 Clubsport is that its body shell is the same as the one used for the GT2 race car. And, as we mentioned earlier, this is no ordinary Clubsport; the 1st owner, who was a regular client of Porsche at the time, specified some Evo modifications to his car.
This particular specimen was ordered with the high rear wing and with an adjustable front anti-roll bar mounted beneath the front seats, rather than under the bonnet.
Of course, the true 993-series Porsche 911 GT2 Evo, which incorporated aerodynamic, software and mechanical updates for track racing, was offered from 1996 for owners of GT2 racing cars. Of these upgrades, the owner of this car opted to fit an Evo front bumper (with more vents offering better cooling) and a new splitter to improve airflow control, as well as the all-important suspension mods.
These are made up of fully adjustable Bilstein shock absorbers, and the rear suspension rebound adjusters are accessible via the cabin compartment.
As the owner drives the GT2 Clubsport up and down the mountain pass (for photography), I hear a turbo whistling sound from the engine. Later, I will discover that you can hear none of it while driving the car!
Meanwhile, I try to understand and anticipate how a morning with such a unique 911 and its owner would pan out, but the car surpassed any preconceptions I may have had in the weeks leading up to this event.
Specifications:
- Model: 1996 Porsche 993 911 GT2 Clubsport “Evo”
- Engine: 3.6-litre, flat-6, naturally aspirated
- Power: >335 kW at 5 750 rpm
- Torque: >584 Nm at 4 500 rpm
- Transmission: 6-speed, manual, RWD
- Weight: 1 295 kg
- 0-100 km/h: 4.0 sec (claimed)
- Top speed: 293 kph (claimed)
What the GT Clubsport “Evo” is like to drive
The moment I grip the driver’s door handle, I sense that it is no ordinary 993-series 911 door – or 993 GT2 door, for that matter. It is featherlight, and the minimal black door trim contrasts starkly with the blood-red metal throughout the cockpit. Because the roll cage and Schroth seatbelts are also red, it’s the black dashboard, seats, and the Momo logo on the 3-spoke steering wheel that stand out most.
Ingress is best executed by stepping in with your right leg first and then sliding off the roll cage’s cross member into the seat. Immediately, you have a sense of being in a secure and safe environment. Heh!
The bucket seat supports you from your upper thighs right up to your shoulders. Next, I get all the straps of the 4-point harness in place and click them into the central mount which is resting on my stomach.
The main part of the dashboard will be familiar to owners of 993-series 911 variants, but that is where the similarities with a standard car end. The gearknob is from a 962 race car; Porsche (that had some parts left over from its 962 sports prototype racing programme) fitted it as a kind gesture to the owner.
As I settle into the seat, I work the gearlever through the gate, just to get a feel for its throw before I set off. It is a 6-speed H-pattern ‘box with reverse gear hard left and up, but it shifts easier than I expected.
The moment I turn the key, the engine catches, and the rawness of a powerplant positioned on solid mounts (for the record) fills the cabin. Not only is it decidedly loud – I have never before had the sense that an engine is so directly connected with a car’s body shell as in this 911, not in a road car, anyway.
An ear-piercing sound engulfs the cabin
However, the moment I engage 1st gear and release the clutch pedal, a new, mechanical and shrill, ear-percing sound – one that overwhelms the engine’s cacophony, no less – engulfs the cabin.
The whine from the straight-cut gears (fitted by the previous owner for club-racing purposes) would probably have most people jumping on the brakes; it sounds harsh, almost as if something is broken.
The racket dissipates (a bit) as you press the accelerator pedal, but the moment you get off the throttle, the intensity of that gearbox whine returns. Owners and drivers of Cup cars will feel quite at home here…
A previous, but very brief, drive in the car (to prepare for the photoshoot) had readied me for today, but I never came close to the redline on that occasion, and barely nudged the car’s limits through a bend.
This morning, things are different, however. The owner of the GT2 Clubsport “Evo” has driven ahead, leaving the best part of a mountain pass to me at the helm of his car. There’s no chaperoning here.
Time to put my foot down…
I quick-shift to 2nd gear, and with 2 000 rpm on the rev counter, I put my foot down and the GT2 Clubsport “Evo” car starts hauling – there’s no turbo noise, only that gearbox… and the engine truly comes alive beyond 3 000 rpm. The needle sweeps past the dial markings faster, and during the ensuing 3 000 rpm, I am pushed back into the seat with a force that I’ve only experienced in hardcore sportscars.
Although there are still a few hundred rpm left, I shift at 6 000 rpm and the onslaught continues. It’s a brief joy, however, as I have to stab the brake pedal in a hurry. The centre pedal’s not so heavy that it needs heel-and-toe, but I blip the throttle before I depress the clutch and slot the gear lever into 2nd.
The brakes scrub off speed ably, but I must warn those who take the wheel of such a car: be wary of camber changes or braking when with lock on the ‘wheel – if it catches you out, you could be in trouble.
Having read about how notorious these 911s can be if you don’t respect the rightmost pedal, I can’t help but marvel at the way this engine hides its turbo lag. For a 20-year-old Porsche, I expected more ‘lag, but once you are driving the car as it is meant to be driven – high in the rev range – you will hardly notice it.
Sheer steering feel is integral to this GT2 Clubsport. Owing to the car’s track-oriented “Evo” setup, the front wheels show an insatiable appetite to dive into the next corner. In a straight line, the car is stable, but the slightest change in the camber of the road filters through the wheels to the steering wheel.
Instantaneous responses to steering inputs
Yet, with the slightest steering input, this Porsche will comply like no other 911 I’ve driven, perhaps apart from a Cup racing car. It is as if the moment that you guide the car into a corner, it is at its happiest.
I am only too aware that there is no body roll to speak of – not under braking, not under acceleration, and not when you turn the wheel, for that matter. With all that grunt on tap, you must be ready to anticipate any possible wayward movement from the rear axle, but the experience is mind-blowing – what a car!
Summary
The GT2 represented the peak of Porsche 911 development in the Nineties. For fans of air-cooled 911s, it is the apogee of 911 development. This is, without question, the most hardcore road car Porsche has ever built. Will we ever see another pop-riveted GT2 or GT3 model again? It’s highly unlikely, I believe.
Since the 993 GT2, Porsche has never gone to such lengths to offer such a raw driving machine. That’s what makes these cars so very special. And, as if the GT2 Clubsport wasn’t special enough, a Clubsport with Evo modifications in a road-legal Porsche is just about as raw as it gets for the wonderful 911.
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