There are rare cars and then there is the original Porsche 911 GT2. Almost as scarce as hens’ dental implants, the 993-era GT2 was built to kick ass on the race track and today it is kicking ass in auction rooms, as it sells for serious sums of money.

Launched in 1995, it was conceived so Porsche could compete in the FIA’s GT2 category of sports car racing. And with fewer than 200 made– 172 GT2s rolled out of Zuffenhausen, followed by 21 GT2 Rs in 1998 – it now fetches a pretty penny.

Because of that scarcity, the original GT2 is widely considered the holy grail of the 993 family and values have soared. Last December, RM Sotheby’s sold a sub-10,000 mile example for £1.9 million, and this August another, higher-mileage GT2 made nearly £1.6m. See for yourself, at The Classic Valuer. (Oh, and by the way, if it’s an original UK, right-hand drive car, it will be one of only seven.) That puts it far beyond reach of most car enthusiasts.

By crude comparison, its successor is going for closing-down-sale, everything-must-go money – a veritable bargain of our times. You’ll have no trouble finding one for less than £100,000. Why?

The most obvious answer is the 996-based 911 GT2 wasn’t restricted in numbers. So during the GT2's four-year production period, from 2001, 1287 were built, only 70 of which were delivered in Clubsport specification. As for the UK, we received 129 GT2s in total, 17 in Clubsport configuration.

I went on the launch of the 996 GT2. Sharing a car with fellow motoring journalist Richard Meaden, we were in Italy and had to make do with driving on public roads – the sort of continental roads that have that glassy-smooth finish and not a pothole in sight. Given we’d been tasked with manhandling Porsche’s most powerful road-going 911 yet, a private track wouldn’t have gone amiss, but hey-ho, that was how Porsche decided to launch the first watercooled GT2.

As it would transpire, there was a reason for this. The GT2 wasn’t quite the razor-edged track car its on-paper specification would have you believe.

It's Martini time

It took the flat-six, dry-sump, 3.6-litre Mezger twin-turbo engine and turned the power up to 462bhp (128bhp per litre). More significantly, torque leapt to 457Ib ft at 3500rpm, and it was lighter than the Turbo (if 80kg heavier than a GT3). Compared with a GT3 or GT3 RS, the GT2 was a Martini car – brutally rapid anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

That translated to grown-up performance: 0-62mph in 4.1 seconds, 0-124mph in 12.5 seconds and a top speed of 195mph. It was also, on paper at least, a scary car. That’s because the only concession to driver aids was an anti-lock braking system. But what brakes they were. The standard carbon-ceramic anchors could have brought the Flying Scotsman to a stop.

Without traction or stability control, or the four-wheel drive of the Turbo, and a six-speed manual Getrag gearbox, it was the job of the driver and the driver alone to keep on top of the 996 GT2. And some would argue that that is exactly the way things should be when it comes to defining the rush of a GT product from Porsche – a hit of pure adrenalin.

Yet despite all this, as well as lowered suspension (by 20mm) compared with the Turbo and revised spring and damper rates, the GT2 felt surprisingly forgiving on the road. Comfortable, even.

There was a relaxed gait that allowed the GT2 to flow down uneven surfaces, it didn't tramline, and the turbochargers muted the wail of the flat-six compared with a GT3. It was, whisper it, sensible.

But then the road opened up ahead of you, you gave it the beans and as boost built the GT2 switched to warp drive velocity. You’d have needed a GT1 Strassenversion to go any faster, but I doubt it would have been anywhere near as user-friendly as the GT2.

But unlike the raw, unfiltered nature of the GT3 models, feeling your way in the GT2 took time. The signals from the fat Pirelli P Zeros(315/30 R18s at the back) were a little muted and Porsche had deliberately engineered in quite a bit of understeer as the default characteristic of the (adjustable)chassis, which sported a limited-slip differential. Finding the natural limit, powering through the understeer and feeling the transition to oversteer was made tricky by the boosty nature of the engine. Put simply, when the tail let go, it went quite quickly…

I can remember turning to Meaden, after gathering it all up exiting one particular corner, and we looked at each other and burst into unhinged laughter in unison, fuelled by nervous energy.

Some drivers won’t like that aspect of the GT2’s behaviour. They're probably the ones who label it a 'widowmaker'. Others will view it as just a different and interesting challenge to get to grips with. And let’s not forget that with suspension adjustment(the spring, damper, anti-roll bar and camber settings were adjustable) to some extent the car could be tuned to taste. But that kick from the tail was always waiting.

Watching the widowmaker: Porsche 911 GT2 (996)

Today it is a thoroughly useable, modern-classic that savvy collectors should keep an eye on. As intimated at the beginning of this tale, the 996 generation of the 911 GT2 seems to be too good an opportunity to miss. It cost £114,900 in 2001 - around £30,000 more than a 996 Turbo. Adjusted for inflation, that’s as good as £210,000 now.

And yet a browse of the classifieds shows that you can find excellent examples of the GT2, with full Porsche service history and less than 30,0000 miles on the clock, for less than £100,000. If rarity is your main concern, a right-hand drive Clubsport car would the one to hunt down, and that will cost something like a third more.

Even so, that wouldn’t even be a tenth of the cost of the original 993 GT2, judged on recent sales.

Maybe it’s just me, but those numbers suggest the 996 GT2 could be undervalued and ready to appreciate in the future, as more enthusiasts cotton on to what you get for the money.

And even if you did set one aside in storage for five years and watch how the market played out, only to find Mills' man maths was utterly fanciful, you’ll have had a good time figuring out what makes the 996 generation GT2 tick.

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