The Top 5 Rarest Porsche Factory Models According To Porsche

In a hermetically sealed structure, secured the likes of a WWII bunker, with floors as clean as a CERN laboratory, and cloaked under shiny satin covers, rest the Hall of Famers, the very rarest models of one motoring’s most prestigious automakers… Porsche.

In this eight-part series, Porsche gives us a peek at its rarest, best sounding, most beautiful and prized vehicles, in bite-sized Top 5 countdowns. Welcome to the Porsche Top 5 Series.

In the first episode, we take a look at the Top 5 rarest Porsche factory models.

No.5: Porsche 964 Turbo S

Total built: 86 Units

The Porsche 964 Turbo S was created by the Weissach Racing Department in 1992. This was the first model to sport the ‘S’ nomenclature at the end and punched out 360PS. Carbon body panels and lightweight 18-inch wheels picked straight out of Porsche’s racing program help shed 180kgs of its kerb weight. The 964 Turbo S is also commonly referred to as the ‘Leichtbau’ or ‘Light Build’. The Speed Yellow colour it sports was specifically developed for this car.

No. 4: Porsche 924 Carerra GTS

Total built: 50 Units

The Porsche 924 Carerra GTS was a road-legal version of racing car campaigned at the 1980 Le Mans 24 hour race, the first car was in white, while the other 49 units were finished in the eye-catching Indian Red. The lightweight, nimble 924 Carerra GTS performed extremely well on track in the rain, notching up sixth and thirteenth place finishes in the 1980 Le Mans. The road-going GTS sported proper rose-jointed suspension links, and aluminum semi-trailing arms at the rear. The 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder up front produced 245bhp and 335Nm of torque. 

No 3: Porsche 911 GT1

Total built: 21 Units

The Porsche 911 GT1 is actually a racing car loosely built to resemble a road car. Homologation rules required at least 20 road-going examples to be built before it could take part in the GT1 class at Le Mans. Just 21 were built. While it may look like the period 996-Series, 911 model, the GT1 shared its front end chassis with the older 993-Series and the rear with the immensely successful 962 Le Mans racing car. The 911 GT1 retailed for DM 1.55 million (before the Euro came along), cheap if you consider it’s actually a racing car for the road…

No 2: Porsche 911 SC/RS

Total built: 20 Units

The ‘RS’ in the name stood for Rally Sport, at a time when Group B rallying was at its height in the early eighties, and Porsche was developing a purpose built racer, which would later be known as the 959, David Richards, architect behind the Porsche-Rothmans partnership persuaded the company to develop the 911 (in the interim) for rally racing. Just 20 examples were built in 1984, to satisfy homologation requirements. The 911 SC/RS was, of course, lighter than the production version and produced 250bhp.

No 1: Porsche 356 America Roadster

Total built: 16 Units

The America Roadster was a lightweight version of Porsche’s perennial sports car, the 356. Just 16 units were built to commemorate Porsche’s racing victories and rising stardom in the United States and were campaigned successfully by drivers like Jack McAfee and the founder of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), Briggs Cunningham. From the Nurburgring to Watkins Glen Speedway, the Porsche 356 enjoyed instant acclaim, and helped Porsche “win on Sunday and Sell on Monday”…