The release of Porsche's Carrera GT, which will challenge the Ferrari Enzo for the title of the world's fastest car, has been delayed because one of its most experienced test drivers says it is too powerful for mere mortals.
Former world rally champion and Porsche test driver Walter Rohrl told Drive the new Porsche supercar is "the first car in my life that I drive and I feel scared".
Just three Australians have ordered one, but they have told Porsche their cars will be garaged in Europe because the Carrera GT cannot be registered here.
Rohrl, who has been testing the Carrera GT in prototype form for the past three years, said it is so powerful that it spins the rear wheels in each gear up to fifth in its six-ratio box.
Power and acceleration figures are yet to be announced but Rohrl gave a clue to the engine's awesome performance, saying that the 5.5-litre V10 produces 450Nm of torque from as little as 2000rpm.
Overseas reports claim that the engine has a maximum of 450kW and 600Nm and that the engine revs to 9000rpm.
Earlier this year, Rohrl said, the engineering team was about to cancel a day's testing at the famous Nurburgring circuit because of wet weather. But, Rohrl said, when he insisted the car had to be tested in slippery conditions, he discovered the car's daunting performance.
"I came back into the pits and I was white," Rohrl said. "I immediately said to the engineers that we need one button for the wet and one button for the dry", referring to the need for a traction control switch.
Originally, he said, there were no plans to fit electronic traction control to the Carrera GT but his insistence has forced Porsche to develop a system at late notice.
Porsche is also trying to refine the gearbox -- but getting so many heavy-duty parts to move smoothly and quickly has proved challenging for engineers.
Rohrl says the car will not be released "until it is perfect" and that the maker is under no time pressure to deliver the Carrera GT.
"That is one of the good things about projects like this," he says. "Everyone wants the best and we will do what it takes, as long as it takes, to build the best.
"The car will sell whenever we bring it out."
Since its unveiling in concept car form at the 2000 Paris motor show, the Carrera GT has been on the road frequently as part of Porsche's rigorous testing program and accordingly has often been caught wearing little disguise (above).
The Carrera GT was at the Estoril F1 race track in Portugal last week for dry-weather testing. Rohrl, who was attending a media release for the new Porsche Cayenne 4WD at the time, was on the phone each night to check on the progress of his "baby".
At the Nurburgring, Rohrl tested the car with several tyre combinations and found that the 20-inch Michelin tyres, while excellent in the dry, were more of a handful in the wet than the equivalent Pirellis, on which he was 20 seconds a lap quicker around the 22km circuit.
Porsche has yet to make top speed claims about the Carrera GT but it has been reported that its tyres will be rated to 400kmh because the car is likely to exceed 350kmh.
The current benchmark is the three-seater McLaren F1 road car which recorded a top speed of 386.7kmh set in 1999. But this model has not been in production for four years, leaving the fight open for Porsche and Ferrari.
On paper, an acceleration time of 3.7 seconds for the 0-100kmh sprint is likely for the Carerra GT. Rohrl would not give an estimate.
"We develop the car to be the best we can possibly build and then put a stop watch on it," he said. "We don't come up with a time and say 'this is what we must achieve' because then you have a limit." Porsche plans to build no more than 1000 Carerra GTs (Ferrari is building 399 Enzos) over three years starting from mid-2003, assembling them by hand at the company's Leipzig plant alongside the Cayenne 4WD.