zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Culture
/
Let's Take A Long Moment To Open The Porsche 911 GT1's Wonderfully Complicated Engine Lid
Let's Take A Long Moment To Open The Porsche 911 GT1's Wonderfully Complicated Engine Lid-May 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:12:20

In the case that you recently spent on a and still haven’t figured out how to open the rear clamshell covering the entire half of your homologation special, DK Engineering is here to help.

DK very kindly uploaded a user manual to your 911 GT1, all 20-odd of you. (Porsche claims 21 in , RM Auctions claims 23 in . The racing rules of the FIA but Porsche got away with only building .) There’s lots in the video, like how to plug into your OBD port and get your diagnostics, scrolling through the Porsche menu to the “miscellaneous” drop down. My favorite is the elaborate procedure of opening the engine lid. It kicks off a bit after four minutes into this lovingly obsessive video:

This being a race car with some extra leather on the interior, basically, the engine lid is meant for racing and racing speeds. As such, you don’t just get a little clasp that could flip open if you’re doing over 200 mph. You get a very long wrench.

It’s hiding in your (which has its own lovely hydraulic struts), a long t-shaped hex wrench that will look familiar to any bike mechanic. You open the door, gaze deeply into the mysterious hole and insert the wrench until you get a very satisfying click. You spin some sort of something in there until it releases, then do it again on the other side. What’s going on in there, deep in the depths of the 911 GT1? Is it a screw acting on a spring, the same way it is for adjusting left/right tension on 1980s Shimano Deore XT cantilever brakes? Is it some sort of extended tumbler lock? Is there a little gnome living in there, and you are reaching into its home, charging via your twisting its complicated magneto-based energy system, and in exchange the little gnome releases grip upon the latch? We may never know.

Image for article titled Let's Take A Long Moment To Open The Porsche 911 GT1's Wonderfully Complicated Engine Lid

Image for article titled Let's Take A Long Moment To Open The Porsche 911 GT1's Wonderfully Complicated Engine Lid

Even with both sides released, you have a multi-stage process of lifting the lid up, not greatly unlike a front-hinged 1970s BMW hood but backwards. There is also a spectacularly ’90s anodized red locking plate that holds the huge lid open. You must press it closed with your foot to release it when it’s time to close the thing back up.

Image for article titled Let's Take A Long Moment To Open The Porsche 911 GT1's Wonderfully Complicated Engine Lid

All I can say is that it takes a terrifically long time to do, and grants the engine compartment of the 911 GT1 with the sufficient sense of occasion it deserves. That’s something of a development of Porsche’s Group C powerplant, a twin-turbo flat six and a Porsche 962 transmission hooked up to it.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Culture
National Cycling Champ Hit And Killed By Driver While Riding Near Her Home
National Cycling Champ Hit And Killed By Driver While Riding Near Her Home
Cars striking and killing cyclists is tragically common, but this death is hitting the cycling community particularly hard. Gwen Inglis, the national road racing champion in her age group and “one of the best cyclists in Colorado” per the Bicycle Racing Association of Colorado, died after being hit by...
May 21, 2026
The Volvo SCC Concept Predicted Every Safety Feature In Your Car 20 Years Ago
The Volvo SCC Concept Predicted Every Safety Feature In Your Car 20 Years Ago
Welcome to another installment of Cars Of Future Past, a series here at Jalopnik where we flip through the pages of history to explore long-forgotten concepts and how they had a hand in shaping the cars we know today. The rally car featured in last week’s edition was an...
May 21, 2026
Blip: One Of My Favorite Family Photos
Blip: One Of My Favorite Family Photos
When I said “favorite family photo” in the hed there, I clearly didn’t mean one of mine, as all the ones I had growing up were marred by blurred, swinging arms or a face convulsed in mid, unexpected retching. No, this is the Volkswagen Brazil family from the 1970s,...
May 21, 2026
Wall Street Is Feeling The Pain Of The EV Bubble Burst
Wall Street Is Feeling The Pain Of The EV Bubble Burst
Pirelli is making eco-conscious tires, Wall Street agrees that gambling rocks, and Joe Biden wants point-of-sale rebates for EVs. All that and more in for May 19, 2021. It was around this time last year that Tesla’s stock , following . With it, there are dozens of companies that...
May 21, 2026
What Car Company Would You Invest in?
What Car Company Would You Invest in?
This week’s announcement that Canoo would sell its cool little van/truck deal for under $35,000 next year may mean that the company believes it will sell that cool little van/truck deal for under $35,000 next year. It may also have been related to another announcement, that Canoo is under...
May 21, 2026
Thrill To Another Volkswagen Taillight Mystery: The Phantom Reverse Lamps
Thrill To Another Volkswagen Taillight Mystery: The Phantom Reverse Lamps
I realize that for most of us, taillights are a source of comfort, of strength, an unyielding, illuminated beacon of truth in an increasingly uncertain world. While I myself feel this way and derive a great deal of my own inner strength via the contemplation of taillights, I realize...
May 21, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved