Revealed in 1996 as Stuttgart’s answer to the likes of the Ferrari F40 and McLaren F1, the Porsche 911 GT1 was created for one very clear purpose – to win sportscar races. But rather than dressing up a road car for competition like Ferrari and McLaren, Porsche did it backwards, creating a race car that was then modified for street use. The end result was nearly 50 race wins for the German brand, as well as a handful of barely legal mid-engine “Straßenversion” iterations that somehow managed to squeeze under the limbo line of governmental regulations and meet homologation standards. One example was in attendance at the 75th Members Meeting in Goodwood this year, and its journey to the event is chronicled in this four-minute video.

Seeing the GT1 out on public roads, you can’t help but wonder how to hell Porsche managed to convince those in charge this thing was suited for highway use. Granted, its twin-turbo 3.2-liter flat-6 engine was detuned over the race spec, a catalytic converter was fitted to the exhaust, and the slicks were swapped for grooved rubber. The rest of it, though, is pure race car. This particular example is rocking a stripped-out interior, lexan windows, and sponsor-heavy livery, and hearing it blast around U.K. roads to the mystified expressions of onlookers is a real treat.

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