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How do you say Carrera in Italian?

In 1959, Porsche invited several coachbuilder companies to bid for the construction contract of 20 lightweight aluminum bodies to conform to the FIA 1600cc Gran Turismo class.  The previous year’s Reutter bodied GT racers were proving competitive, but the Lotus Elites and Alfa Giuliettas were gaining momentum quickly.  Rather than be caught up, Porsche wanted a new lightweight body for the 1600 Carrera.  Fitted with the 692/3 Carrera engine, and conforming to the class minimum 1712 pounds, the new racer would not only regain footing, but would hopefully streak away from the competition.

Carlo Abarth heard tell of Porsches project plans, and made himself available at the Frankfurt Auto Show, in September of 1959, to gain audience with Porsche executives.  Mr. Abarth made it known that he was willing to bid one million Lire per car for the construction of the lightweight GT racer.  Porsche saw promise in the Italian, and told him to make one car ready as a sample to the abilities of his coachworks.  It was agreed that the car was to be ready by mid-October.

In early October, Abarth had contracted Franco Scaglione to design the body with input from Porsche regarding engine and oil cooler placement, as well as cooling requirements.  Intermixing Italian traditional design with Porsche design cues visible in the headlamps and 356 tail lamp assemblies turned vertical.  Racing influences could also be seen in the bodywork with cooling ducts for the front brakes and center mounted oil cooler, while the rear decklid had an adjustable air scoop, as well as copious louvering.

In comparison to a standard 356B, the Abarth/Scaglione project was much more aerodynamically efficient.  In height, it was 5.2 inches shorter, and the car was also narrower by 4.7 inches, thus reducing the frontal area by fifteen percent and providing an optimal drag coefficient of .414.  Lacking the roadgoing 356’s bumpers, the Carrera GTL, as it would come to be known, also lost 5.1 inches in overall length.  With additional reinforcements, and an aluminum body, the Carrera GTL was able to come in just above the class minimum weight.  While it was slightly heavier than competition from Lotus and Alfa Romeo, the GTL was over 100 pounds lighter than the previous year’s Reutter GT.

With delays, due to Abarth’s falling out with supplier Zagato, the first prototype GTL was not delivered until late February, nearly four months late.  In a traditional Italian way, the first Carrera, as delivered, was uncomfortable, did not provide adequate cooling, and was less than water-tight.  Modifications to the prototype had to be made before the second car could be finished.  The oil cooler was relocated for better cooling, the front wheel arches needed to be trimmed to allow proper  steering angle, and the seats had to be lowered, in addition to the cushioning in them being removed to allow even the smallest of Porsche’s drivers enough headroom to function properly.

These improvements, however, proved to make a near perfect car, as Paul Strahle and Herbert Linge piloted Carrera GTL number two to sixth overall and first in class at the 1960 Targa Florio.  The pair would replicate the effort for the 1961 running of the event as well. For the one thousand kilometers of the Nurburgring, Porsche fitted an experimental braking system to the prototype car for Linge and Greger, which relegated them to the 1600 Sports Racer class, in which they still managed a second while finishing seventh overall.  In the same event, Strahle and Gerhard Koch also drove GTL models to first and third, respectively, in the 1600cc GT class.

Fitted with driving lights, the prototype GTL was returned to its standard braking system for battle at La Sarthe.  As class winners in the only Porsche factory entry, Linge and Walter spent several hours driving the French countryside in an ice cold bathtub, soaked to the bone, as the car still proved susceptible to water leaks.  The win at Le Mans proved to the world that the GTL was a force to be reckoned with.

After its Le Mans victory, where it was clocked at over 138 miles per hour on the Mulsanne straight, the motoring press was allowed to flog the car on test drives.  “Infernal racket”, “Anybody over six feet would have a problem”, and “It really comes in at 5500 RPM”, were used by the media to describe Porsches miniscule rocket.  Sprinting from zero to sixty in under nine seconds, as observed by German magazine Auto Motor Und Sport, with some bravery and a large expanse of straight track the driver could continue on to one hundred miles per hour in under twenty-one seconds.

Costing a precious 25000 Deutche Marks, or 6300 US dollars in 1960, twenty-one GTL editions were built in total, with two remaining in ownership of the factory.  Having garnered several class wins, as well as top ten overall finishes at prestigious international endurance and sprint races, the 1600 Carrera GTL proved its worth at events such as the Le Mans 24 hour, the Daytona Continental, the Sebring 12 hours, and the Targa Florio.  Porsche, as they are customary to do, relied mainly upon privateer entrants for race results.  The Carrera GTL remained competitive in regional, national, and international racing until it was rendered obsolete, and dropped out of favor,  by its bigger, sexier, successor, the Carrera GTS Typ 904.