1994 Dauer 962 Le Mans Porsche]

The Dauer 962 LM was introduced to the public in September of 1993 at the Frankfurt Motor Show and was accompanied by a price tag of $853,000. Not the most expensive exotic car on the market, but well worth the money. The Sultan of Brunei has added six of these machines to his 5000+ vehicle collection. On average, between one and two Dauers are produced per year.

The Porsche 962 had been successfully campaigned in many FIA and IMSA championships since its inception in 1984. The Porsche 962 was basically a 956 that had been stretched, increasing its size to accommodate new rules and regulations imposed by the sanctioning bodies. During its life-span nearly 150 examples had been sold.

According to LeMans rules, a racecar could be entered in the GT category as long as one street legal example had been created and registered. In the spring of 1994, the street car example was created. During that same year it was entered in the grueling 24 Hours of LeMans race by Dauer with factory support from Porsche. The 962 LM Sport was successful at capturing the overall victory and was later banned from participation in 1995.

The engine in the car is the famous 2994cc water-cooled, twin-cam-per-bank, four-valves-per-cylinder Porsche flat-six. A pair of intercooled KKK turbochargers are employed and the Le Mans spec engine has ’softer’ cams and therefore more tractable driving characteristics.

This engine is fully European emissions legal thanks to racing catalytic convertors and Bosch Motronic 1.7 engine management. The latter allows a relatively high 9.0:1 compression ratio to be run without any problems. The 730bhp is delivered at 7,400rpm, you get a red warning light at 7,300rpm, the soft-cut rev limiter goes into action at 7,400rpm and there is a hard cut-out at 7,800rpm. At 1080kg, the 962LM may weigh around 180kg more than its competition brother, but its power-to weight ratio is still better than a McLaren F1s. In a drag start, 0-60mph takes just 2.6 sec in first gear. It has a top speed of 250 mph.