Little confusion on my part surrounding "M-471", Paging Dr. 914 Options

[Lavanaut]

I've been wondering about this for a long time and was reminded about it last night as I was flipping through the AA catalog and came across pics of George's blue M-471 GT. It's my understanding that the true factory GT race cars did not have the "M-471" designation, that it was technically the designation for the "GT-look" package that one could order from the factory on a /6...?

I guess at the center of my uncertainty is this: when I see "M-471" I immediately think "not a factory GT", but a factory GT look-a-like...just like the wide body "turbo look" 911s.

Can someone help clear this up for me?

Thanks

edit: forgot to say that adding to the confusion is the verbiage in the AA catalog about the "M-471 GT" and its racing history.

[carr914]

Back in the late 60s-early 70s, to race in World Endurance races, Manufactorers had to build a certain amount of cars in order to meet the rules of the class. For instance Porsche had to meet the Homologation number in order to race the 917. So the Factory made 25 917s and lined them up for the Officials to see. Most of them were just shells and were made into real racecars later.



The Same applied to the 914-6GT or Renn. Hence the Factory built up the proper number of GT & M-471GT to meet the rules. The rules changed and the Factory offered the 400 M-471 kits to dealers.

Porsche has always read the rules and used them to their advantage. Jo Hoppen was one of the best using 914-6GT, 911RSR, 934, 935 and the 917-10 to Porsche's advantage.

This philosophy continued into the 90's when the FIA @ LeMans classified Street-Cars. So Porsche took the 962 to Dauer & Schuppan and made "962 Street cars" They then took a street car, made it into a racecar and Won LeMans



This continued into the GT1 which actually had a 993 front bulkhead.



The abandoned LMP1 car morphed into the Carrera GT, which in a way became the RS Spyder