It isn’t everyday that I see the shape of a car and I find myself reclining in my chair, looking at the screen, left muttering, “WTF?” to myself. The shape is a combination of early 1990s LeMans Prototype and a wild-ass concept car of the same era, especially that gigantic hoop of a rear spoiler. One of six made, one with single-digit miles on the clock…if that, even…this low-slung black beast is just about a one-of-one, a very unique car with racing pedigree and a story to boot. This is a 1993 Schuppan/Porshce 962CR, a car that I didn’t know existed up to this video.
The Schuppan is mid-engined, rear-drive, and packs a water-cooled 3.3L flat-six sporting twin KKK turbochargers. That’s good for 600-ish horsepower, all barking through a five-speed transaxle. Effectively, it’s the same engine that the Porsche 962 race cars used in IMSA GT competition with a slight downsizing in displacement. It’s a full carbon fiber monocoque, somewhat common today but radical for 1993, and was claimed to be able to hit 230 MPH, nipping at the heels of the mighty McLaren F1. Vern Schuppan, an Australian racer, was the man who wanted to build and sell these cars to wealthy Japanese…and we mean wealthy, because new the price tag was around $1.9 million. Unfortunately, his timing for targeting wealthy Japanese buyers was horrible: when the “bubble economy” popped in 1992, the buyer’s pool that Schuppan had hoped would materialize didn’t, and as a result his operations went bankrupt. Six cars were built, and reportedly one was destroyed in a fire.
Owning one that had been parked until the end of 2014, with no miles on the clock, must be torment…you know that the Schuppan is a wicked piece, but you can’t drive it. Or can you? Well…at least Leno got to drive it.
