The Porsche 911 GT1 was a car designed for competition in the GT1 class of sportscar racing, which also required a street legal version for homologation purposes. The limited-production street-legal version was labeled the 911 GT1. For the 1998 season Porsche developed an all-new car, the 911 GT1-98. Designed to match the also new Toyota GT-One and Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR, the 911 GT1-98 featured bodywork which bore more of a resemblance to traditional sports-prototypes than the previous 2 models while a new sequential gearbox was installed. As per the regulations a street-legal version of the 911 GT1-98 was spawned, but it is believed that only one variant was produced which was still sufficient to satisfy the regulations. During the 1998 FIA International GT season the 911 GT1-98 struggled to match the pace of the Mercedes, which also were improved, with the main reason being down to the air-restrictor rules being which were regarded as unfavourable to the turbo engine (the Mercedes being naturally aspirated). The Michelin tyres of the factory team and especially the Pirelli of the private Zakspeed team were also considered inferior to the Bridgestone of Mercedes. At the 1998 Le Mans however, it was a different story. The BMW V12 LM retired with wheel bearing trouble, and the Mercedes CLK-LM vehicles had oil pump troubles in the new V8 engines that replaced the former V12. The Toyota GT-One, which was considered to be the fastest car, also suffered gearbox reliability problems. The 911 GT1-98, despite being slower than the Toyota or the Mercedes, fulfilled Porsche's slim hopes, taking both first and second place overall thanks to reliability, giving Porsche its record-breaking 16th overall win at Le Mans, more than any other manufacturer in history.
