2004 Porsche Carrera GT

The fact that the effective straightaway was 60 feet short of a quarter mile didn't hinder me from logging some remarkable statistics. The run from rest to 60 mph is an eye-blink-quick 3.8 seconds. If you could read the speedometer needle, it would buzz to 100 mph in 7.0 seconds and past 120 in 9.6 seconds. Worthy of a berth at the NHRA Winter Nationals, the Porsche Carrera GT clicks off the quarter in 11.4 seconds at 133 mph.


Unfortunately, Adria's main straight feeds into a 40-mph left-hand bend, which waved a red flag on additional acceleration measurements. That meant no opportunity to explore the last one-third of this car's velocity range. Thanks to a real wing that rises majestically at 75 mph and a full ground effects underbelly, the Carrera GT easily clears the 200 mph hurdle with unshakable stability according to program manager Michael Hoelscher.


To study stability at more mundane speeds, I had a road course that folds back and forth upon itself five times. The Carrera GT is equipped with ABS and the aforementioned traction control, but the electronic security blanket does not include PSM (Porsche Stability Management). Focusing on a tight loop before the last turn leading onto Adria's straightaway, my cornering-grip measurements spotted the limit well over 1.2 g. That compares favorably with the peak braking deceleration of 1.26 g I recorded. The Carrera's combination of organic brake pads, carbon-ceramic brake rotors, and Michelin Sport Compact 2 tires gives this car true supercar braking muscles to match its cornering and accelerating prowess.

The Porsche Carrera GT clicks off the quarter in 11.4 seconds at 133 mph.

Two cornering attitudes are available. Sneak up on the limit with a light toe on the throttle and delicate hands adding steering lock and the front tires eventually begin to chatter as the nose drifts wide of the desired line. Or you can charge a tight bend with more assertive demands—sharper steering inputs in combination with trail braking—to shake the rear tires' grip. This shifts the chatter action to the back of the car. The tail steps wide but never maliciously. The chassis behavior is deliberate and thoughtful as if the Carrera GT has rehearsed these moves thousands of times in the capable hands of Porsche's development experts. Surely, it has.


My test laps at Adria wiped any doubt from my mind that Porsche's $440,000 flagship is the ultimate expression of automotive engineering, the ultimate street-legal racecar, and the ultimate art object for those partial to German sculpture.