Ever since, Porsche has had an impressive history when it comes to endurance racing - having several wins and a lot of memorable finishes. But three of the most important ones for the company were in 1970 with Richard Atwood, 1982 with Derek Bell, and 2015 with Nick Tandy. To celebrate the success of these British drivers, Porsche developed a unique 911 Carrera special edition that fans will definitely drool over.
The 911 Carrera 4 GTS British Legends Edition is made exclusively to honor the performances of Attwood, Bell and Tandy, as well as the vehicles they used when they took the championship, including the 917, 956 and the 919 Hybrid LMP1. Each of them won at the Le Mans 24 hour race. The 911s were developed at the Porsche headquarters in Stuttgart, and it was Porsche Great Britain that developed the unique 911s for the UK.
Each one of the 911 has their own unique number and livery that represents the driver’s winning Porsche racing car. The livery and cabin both have the Union Jack symbol displayed all over them. What’s new with the 911 are features like the Satin finish black door mirrors, carbon floor mats with Alcantara edging, and Alcantara steering column casing.
Porsche made sure to personalize these models by incorporating some of the driver’s personal preferences, adding their own style to their cars. For instance, the cabin is made of Alcantara, giving the 911 a more authentic race feel. As for the mechanical bits, it had been specified to the driver’s personal driving styles - offering the 911 in either a manual or a quick-shifting Porsche PDK. These special edition 911s have been hand-crafted at Porsche’s Exclusive Manufaktur workshop in Germany.
All the British Legends Edition cars are equipped with a 3.0 liter flat-six engine that carries out 450 horsepower (331 kilowatts) and 405 pound-feet (550 Newton-metres) of torque. That is more powerful compared to the 911 Carrera S, with the extra 30 horsepower (22 kilowatts). This engine allows it to hit 0-62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) in only 3.6 seconds, when the launch control is activated. It may be half as powerful as Tandy’s 900bhp 919 Hybrid, and its top speed of 192 miles per hour is down by 32 mph on the 2015 winner. Other features that come standard with it include Porsche’s Active Suspension Management (PASM) system and Porsche Traction Management (PTM) all-wheel drive.
All three models went on sale in the United Kingdom on October 9 and prices vary. For instance, the Guards Red has a starting price of £122,376 ($160,680), while the Sapphire Blue and the Carrara White cost the same, with a £123,210 ($161,745) price tag. We think that it gets quite a reasonable increase from the £101,000 of a standard Carrera 4 GTS, except these don’t come with a lot of option boxes ticked.
