Is the Porsche Carrera GT the last analogue Hypercar?

It’s 6am, your alarm sounds off, alerting you that it’s time to get ready for work. You find yourself pressing the “stop” button on your screen, next, without another thought, you decide to read the latest supercar news. You click onto some photographs of the latest and greatest cars and, suddenly, it struck you that most new cars are no longer manual stick shift?

If you’re a car buff like me that previous paragraph would’ve outlined your perfect early morning start before dragging yourself to the bathroom in the attempt of beautifying yourself for work. After-all, it's an effort having to compete with the good looks and charm of these super machines.

I get asked a lot, what is the difference between a Supercar and Hypercar? For starters, all hypercars are supercars, but not all supercars are hypercars. Did I just add a little more confusion on the matter? I'll try and break things down for you.

Lets wind back time, it's 2004, the best supercars on offer are the Porsche GT2, Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale and Lamborghini Murcielago. The world was going crazy over the F1 paddleshifters aka DSG and tip-tronic. Most manufacturers like Ferrari and Lamborghini started offering their cars in what is known as the seamless shift gearbox. Porsche on the other hand continued to equally offer both a manual shift and paddle shift automatic, however for their hardcore stripped out versions such as the GT3 and GT2, they refused to offer them in anything other than manual stick shift.

Then comes the hypercars of that era, the Ferrari Enzo, Pagani Zonda, Bugatti Veyron and the Porsche Carrera GT. Now these were hypercars, not only did they look so extravagant, they performed a lot faster than any other supercar. Whilst produced in very limited numbers, they had a body styling that was out of this world, their performance figures were sub 3.9 seconds 0-100km/hr, and their costs were sky high. The hypercars had bigger horsepower, for example the 2004 Porsche Carrera GT had 612 horsepower on offer, matched to the only available stick shift gearbox in a hypercar.

This now takes us to one of the ultimate and rarest of hypercars, the Porsche Carrera GT. The Carrera GT at its time, was well and truly advanced. It was a carbon OCD heaven, one for the frantics to enjoy. In comparison, the supercars only offered carbon as accessories such as, mirrors, paddle shifters, etc, more like a cosmetic treatment. The hypercars had a carbon monocoque, frame, roof, doors, engine lids, engine covers and the list goes on.

Since 2004, there hasn’t been any new hypercar manufactured with a manual stick shift gearbox, clearly marking the Carrera GT the final hyper product as the undisputed finale of the ultimate drivers analogue car. The car is so raw and so precise, weighing in at only 1455kg, a mid engine V10 which wails a symphony that must be heard to be believed. It really is the closest excitement that you can find on the hyper side of a Formula 1 car, and let me tell you, it really sounds like one.

No driver aids, no stability control, limited traction and tyres to burn, the Porsche Carrera GT is amongst the world's greatest and in my opinion. It will be the legend that will go down in the history books as one of the most frightening cars ever built by mankind.

If you’d like to learn more about the Porsche Carrera GT, click on the window below to watch our special episode dedicated to my personal experience with this piece of automotive ingenuity.

This article is written by Lecha Khouri at Supercar Advocates, based in Sydney, Australia.