There's all kinds of lustworthy hardware on display at the Essen Motor Show, which is sorta like the SEMA of Germany without the fear and loathing of Las Vegas, but what really caught our attention are the race-ready Audi R8 GT3 and the latest super-Porsche from the speed meisters at 9ff.
Both cars take what were already fine machines - the sublime Audi R8 and Porsche Carrera GT - and make them so quick, slick and trick that to get one we here at Autopia would consider selling our houses if we had any equity and cashing out our IRAs if they had any value.
Everyone at the show is talking about the GT3-spec race version of the Audi R8 LMS making its first public appearance at Essen. It marks the first time Audi has developed a race-ready car specifically for private race teams. It ain't cheap at $332,000, but you get a turn-key race car with a mid-mounted 500hp V10 engine hooked up to a six-speed sequential sports gearbox.
The engineers at Audi have clearly outdone themselves with the R8 GT3, but if 500 horsepower ain't enough for you, take a look at what German uber-tuners 9ff have cooked up.
Porsche's long since stopped producing the Carrera GT, which with 612 horsepower was no slouch. But Porsche specialists 9ff figured they could make the car even wilder. They gave the Carrera's V10 new camshafts, opened up the exhaust and slapped on a pair of turbochargers. The mods unleashed another 300 ponies. Then they installed a slick body kit, the requisite carbon fiber goodies and slathered it in tasty red paint. The result is the GTT-900.
9ff also rolled out the GT9-R supercar it's still developing. The company hopes the 1,120 horsepower Veyron-slayer will take the title of world's fastest car away from the SSC Ultimate Aero.
POST UPDATED 10:25 a.m.
*Photos by Audi. You can see pix of the GTT-900 over at Supercars.net. *
The GT9-R supercar 9ff is developing with an eye toward claiming the title of world's fastest car. Photo by 9ff.
