Is it just me, dear reader, or have you also been getting a little tired of relentless restomod fever? Don’t get me wrong, I still appreciate the meticulous attention to detail, enhancements of the drivetrain and chassis of these projects, but none of them have really struck a bullseye - I just haven’t felt a connection or had my nostalgia heart strings pulled on. Until now: allow me to introduce the Tuthill GT ONE. 

While the GT2 and GT3 names are most associated with the ultimate 911 variants, that wasn’t always the case, as the 1990s saw the introduction of a new category that would sit at the very top of the GT racing pyramid: GT1. This exciting category was initially filled with the ultimate roadgoing supercars such as the Ferrari F40 and the ironically named (in this context) McLaren F1, with cars in this class able to race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and compete for overall victory, as McLaren famously did in 1995. Porsche had modified their existing 993 GT2-based racer to fit into the top class, but it couldn’t match the competition. They went away, analysed the rulebook and in typical Porsche Motorsport fashion created one of the most impressive results of regulation-abiding lateral thinking that the world had seen.

The 911 GT1 was born. It too used the 993 as its base, before having a racing car built around it. The 3.2 litre water-cooled twin turbo flat-six came from the 962 Group C prototype and was mounted ahead of the rear axle, rather than behind it. The mid-engined monster retained the headlights and tail lights of the “regular” air-cooled 993, but the rest of the bodywork was bespoke to the GT1. 

In order for the car to be able to race in the category, a number of road going versions had to be built and sold, resulting in the 911 GT1 Strassenversion (street version). The engine was detuned slightly from 600 to around 540 bhp, and the round 993-style lamps were switched for the “egg yolk” 996 headlights on all bar the first two examples, but the cabin remained largely faithful to the base model. Only 21 were made and the road car was largely forgotten for a number of years, until the homologation specials from the GT1 era experienced an explosion of interest and value.

Endurance racing is where my heart lies, and after watching my first multi-class long distance race at Silverstone in 2008, I became obsessed with the cars that I had seen and heard which looked nothing like the F1 cars that I had become accustomed to. I began to delve into the history of the classes and the competitors that filled them, and became truly fascinated by the stories of how Lotus, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Panoz, Toyota and of course Porsche developed cars for the race track first, before figuring out how to make it road legal second.

The 911 GT1 won 47 of the 135 races that it entered, with the GT1-98 variant recording a 1-2 finish at the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, although that car was largely unrelated to the original 911 GT1 which was only slightly related to the 993-generation 911 road car. So with the history out of the way, the present day sees the 911 GT1 Strassenversion being a highly coveted and sought after car; they don’t come up for sale very often and when they do, they are frighteningly expensive. But now, Tuthill has put its spin on the 993 model and converted it into a GT1 for the 21st century, and it looks amazing.

The designer behind the GT ONE is Florian Flatau, who has plenty of experience with modernising classic performance icons, owing to his work on the E-Legend EL1 Audi quattro-inspired EV, and the exquisite 911 restomods produced by Singer. Clearly drawing inspiration from the 1996 model, the GT ONE is formed from bespoke carbon fibre bodywork that pays homage to the original longtail shape, while enhancing and giving more pronounced shapes to the doors and sills, leading up to the most flared of flared rear wheel arches that I have ever seen. The rear bodywork sees a wonderful full-width ducktail spoiler that sits above a light strip reminiscent of 993 models. Two exhaust tips protrude above the large rear diffuser. A prominent roof scoop sits above the cabin, which feeds air to the mid-mounted Tuthill-tuned 4.0 litre flat-6 engine. In its naturally aspirated form, this will produce over 500 bhp, but with turbochargers added the output will rise to over 600 bhp.

The engine can be admired by raising the clamshell rear bodywork, which also exposes the inboard suspension and exhaust system that is painted white on the launch car. The gearbox can also be clearly seen, and just like the engine there are two choices available to customers: manual or twin-clutch automatic. Power is sent exclusively to the 20" rear wheels, which carry the same covered fan design as the 19" rims at the front; each wheel is shod in grippy Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber.

Externally, the Tuthill GT ONE looks bespoke - more of a love letter to the 911 GT1 than a tribute act. Needless to say, I love it. Longtail supercars tick a lot of boxes for me - especially those that feature bodywork dropping behind the rear wheels before rising again into a ducktail spoiler. The thing that I find impossible to believe is that this car is actually based on a 993 chassis, but Tuthill insists that it is.

The interior has also been comprehensively overhauled, with bespoke seats, a new steering wheel, and a single digital display replacing the five analogue dials that would have sat ahead of the driver. The cabin uses negative space to great effect, with the thin spokes of the steering wheel featuring nothing but air between them, making it look light to touch and giving a great view of the paddles attached to them on twin-clutch versions. Likewise, the door cards carry the silver trim from the dashboard and use a concave leather trimmed panel that surrounds another metal insert, giving a great impression of width and lightness once again. A manual handbrake lever is seen between the two seats, and a prominent shifter appears on the angled centre console that also plays host to an array of wonderful looking switches.

What isn’t visible is the roll protection system that is integrated within the carbon fibre bodywork, which shows that Tuthill wants the 1,200 kg car to be pushed to its limits on track. This is backed up by a small feature that is hidden in plain sight on the rear deck: two small panels that look as though they can be removed to allow for a large competition-style rear wing to be mounted. Tuthill hints that a high-downforce aero package may be developed for track use.

Prices are nowhere to be seen for the GT ONE, but with Tuthill saying that only 22 will be made and each one requiring over 3,500 hours of work to create, I think it’s safe to assume that prices will start beyond £1,000,000 - anything less, and it’s the bargain of the century. Each one can be exactly personalised to suit the owner’s tastes, and I hope we see some creative reworkings of some of the fabulous colour schemes that the car raced with in the late 1990s, with the black PlayStation, blue and white Mobil1, yellow Rohr Racing and multicolour Champion Racing liveries surely being adapted to fit the shape of the Tuthill GT ONE.

If this is the first of many GT1-era restomods, then I am certainly becoming interested in older shapes being revisited and revitalised for the modern age. All I need to know is who’s going to make a new CLK GTR for me...