There’s something raw about early-2000s motorsport,  a time when telemetry was basic, traction control was absent, and winning meant you felt every vibration through your fingertips. The 2001 996 Cup embodies that era. Born as a purebred race machine, it’s the first GT3 Cup car to wear the 996 chassis, the beginning of Porsche’s modern GT lineage, and the first to use the now-legendary 3.6L naturally aspirated flat-six built on the revered Mezger architecture.

Built to bridge the road-going GT3 with Porsche’s factory GT racers, this 996 Cup was stripped to its essence: a welded-in roll cage, race ABS, close-ratio six-speed, and a screaming 8,200 rpm redline. Every panel serves purpose, every vibration tells truth. It’s not a car you drive, it’s a car you commit to.

This particular example wears its history with pride, maintained for privateer competition, yet kept in authentic specification. It’s a machine that rewards precision, punishes hesitation, and gives back in satisfaction what few modern cars ever could. On the track, it’s a dance of balance and control; in the paddock, it’s a statement of intent.

For the purist, the 996 Cup isn’t just a collector’s item. It’s an invitation, to experience Porsche motorsport at its most analog, to feel the lineage that defined today’s GT3 RS. This is where the legend began. And now, it could begin with you.

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