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The 9ff GT9-R was specially built to snatch the speed record for a street legal car from the Bugatti Veyron.
9FF Supercars don’t care who you are, how long you’ve been burning asphalt, or how popular you are around the world. It looked in the face of big-brand supercars and said, “I’m second to none,” despite being less than a decade old at the time and slotting among the smaller German automakers approved by the country’s Federal Motor Transport Authority.
That sort of confidence is fitting for a brand that rolled out incrementally better collector supercars culminating in a high-performance production model bold enough to dance with the likes of Bugatti Veyron and Koenigsegg. We’re talking about the 9FF GT9-R, a top-ranking version of the GT-9 and a definitive production 9FF supercar.
The updated styling had Porsche ‘written’ all over it, but what really defined the GT9-R are the 1,140 horsepower and 257 mph top speed. According to the automaker, the GT9-R was about "performance in every respect, visually and above all technically." At its launch in 2009, the GT9-R was 9FF's best supercar yet, with a planned 20-unit limited production, each with a million dollar price tag.
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9FF is an automotive tuning house founded by Jan Fatthauer. Previous models offered by the Dortmund-based German company include the 9FF GTurbo, 9FF GTronic, 9FF GT9, and 9FF Speed9. It would later introduce the 9FF GT9-CS in 2011 and 9FF GT9 Vmax in 2012. The 2009 GT9-R had its Porsche-y eyes set on the throne of the fastest production car in the world, a scepter currently held by the formidable Bugatti Veyron.
Development of the GT9-R was loosely based on the Porsche 911 but with a totally revised mechanical package. For example, it shunned the 911's time-tested rear-engine layout in favor of a custom mid-mounted twin-turbo 4.0-liter flat-six engine. The very first copy of the GT9-R was totaled during a high-speed testing session on the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground race track, UK. The car was faster than the similarly powered 2007 Ruf CTR-3.
9FF announced the GT9-R just weeks after presenting the Speed9 Convertible, described by the tuning house as the Harley of road vehicles just as suitable for cruising and coasting as well as for hightailing to your destination with the comfort and safety of 4 wheels. The specific Porsche 911 the GT9-R is based on was the Type 997 GT3, which Porsche produced and sold between 2004 and 2013.
Though loosely based on the GT3, the GT9-R was powered by a thoroughly revised mill, a 3.6- to 4.0-liter flat-six capable of 748 to 1,136 horsepower, depending on the setup. Speaking of setup, remember we already mentioned the GT9-R adopted a mid-engine layout, which was a major deviation from the 911’s historic rear-engine layout, not counting the Porsche 911 GTI race car.
It’s just as well because the mid-engine position and lightweight bodywork improved weight distribution. More so, the GT9-R's stripped-down interior is for this same purpose. With only basic features present in the blue leathered interior, the car is lighter and, therefore, faster.
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9FF saw and believed in Porsche’s potential amid high-performance automobile manufacturers such as McLaren, SSC Ultimate Aero, and Bugatti fighting tooth and nail for the title of the world’s fastest production car. This race for the top-speed throne continued during the late 2000s while Porsche just sought of stayed out of the way.
Porsche looked on as Bugatti’s 268 mph Veyron SuperSport entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s fastest production car in 2005, with the unrelenting Koneissegg bearing down on the new king. Of course, Bugatti would do it again with the 255 mph Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse in 2013 and again in 2019 with the 300 mph Chiron Super Sport.
In the meantime, 9FF saw Porsche’s potential to unseat the reigning Veyron, even if the German marque itself did not or chose not to join the top-speed arms race. King Veyron was apparently the target when 9FF’s engineers fitted its custom flat-six engine with forged pistons and titanium con-rods, resulting in a formidable unit capable of safely putting out an excess of 1,100 horses delivered to the rear wheels via a 6-speed manual or sequential transmission setup.
It also has a 987-hp less-powerful version mated to a 5-speed Tiptronic gearbox.
What’s not to love about a Porsche that isn’t really a Porsche puffing its chest in Veyron’s face? We loved it. Since it needed more than just air in that puffed-up chest, the GT9-R's designers stretched the Porsche 911 body with a lowered roofline to maximize downforce at high speeds. The carbon fiber and Kevlar construction allowed the vehicle to weigh just 2,923 lb.
By the time 9FF engineers were done converting the Porsche 911 GT3 into the GT9-R, it could go from 0 to 62 mph in a blistering 2.9 seconds, bringing it toe-to-toe with the Veyron but never quite clinching the crown. The 9FF GT9 came scarily closer to achieving that goal by unveiling the 271 mph GT9-R Vmax in 2013, but Bugatti proved it would have none of that via the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse introduced that same year.
Bugatti would go on to leave the GT9-R in the dust by introducing the Chiron Super Sport in 2019, the hypercar that cracked the 300+ mph threshold to retain the king of the road scepter. No other production car, the 9FF GT9 included, came close. But we love and will forever respect the 9FF GT9-R for picking up the sword when Porsche won’t be bothered. With 9FF still alive and kicking, maybe the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut, the reigning king of the road, shouldn’t get comfortable.
Philip Uwaoma, this bearded black male from Nigeria, is fast approaching two million words in articles published on various websites, including toylist.com, rehabaid.com, and autoquarterly.com. After not getting credit for his work on Auto Quarterly, Philip is now convinced that ghostwriting sucks. He has no dog, no wife- yet- and he loves Rolls Royce a little too much.