Early Porsche Carrera GT Sketch Reveals What Could Have Been

We’re delighted to announce that double Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody is one of us. The star of works such as The Pianist, The Brutalist and other excellent films not called ‘The Somethingist’ has recently become a Porsche brand ambassador, and paid the company’s Stuttgart HQ a visit for a new short film called The Intern.

It’s all good fun, as Brody tours around the various departments taking on the role of, well, an intern for the sports car maker. Around the 14-minute mark, though, we get to see something interesting.

Brody spends some time with Porsche’s head of special projects, Grant Larson, who rose through the company’s design ranks, having plenty of input in the original 986 Boxster and 997-generation 911.

Larson, ‘just by chance’, happens to have some old design sketches lying around his office, which give us a glimpse at an alternative Porsche history. First, and most interestingly, there’s an early concept for the Carrera GT, sketched when Porsche knew it was going to be a mid-engined V10 supercar, but not much else.

Rather than the targa-topped roadster we know and love, the sketch – dating from 1999, the year before the concept version of the Carrera GT was unveiled – shows off a coupe body with slightly more aggressive looks and a greater motorsport inspiration. In fact, with its ducktail spoiler and roof-mounted air intake, it looks strikingly similar to the Ruf CTR3, the long-time Porsche tuner’s own take on a mid-engined supercar.

Next up comes another clearly mid-engined silhouette with smoothed-off edges and serious ‘early ’90s concept car’ energy. It’s not clear if this is also related to the Carrera GT project, or something else.

Finally, we’re treated to a fleeting glimpse of what Larson calls “goofy 911 stuff”. There’s a grey car we only get the briefest of glances at, followed by an orange one we can see more clearly. Both show fairly radically different directions the long-running model could have taken, although without compromising the hugely recognisable silhouette and rear-engined layout.

While none of these sketches ultimately came to anything (although we still can’t shake the suspicion that Ruf might have somehow seen that Carrera GT one at some point), it’s always fascinating to get these glimpses of what, in a parallel universe, could have been very real cars. We’re not sure it’ll win Brody a third Oscar, but it certainly wins him some extra admiration from us.