New car news

10 May 2011 - 12:15

For sale: Vader’s Porsche 962C

Darth Vader doesn't ‘do' cars, but if he did, he'd probably drive this: a 1986 Switec-Porsche 962C.

That car you see above was built over a four-year period by former Sauber F1 chief engineer Ernest Schlaepfer in New Zealand, and is a road-going version of one of the most successful racers of all time.

See more pics of the Porsche 962C for sale

It features an aluminium chassis from Fab Car (sanctioned by Porsche), together with that ‘long-tail' carbon fibre body and a 3.6-litre twin-turbocharged and intercooled flat-sixer pushing out 432kW and 741Nm of torque.

Weighing just 830kg (without fluids), this black vision of revvy-mayhem comes with a five speed Porsche racing gearbox, a limited slip diff, hydraulic ride height adjustment, Brembo brakes, 17in three-piece billet-machined alloy wheels and even a reverse parking sensor. Because, y'know, backing out of Asda can be tricky.

In case you're of the opinion that it's ‘just another black Porsche', here's some heavyweight authority: five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell championed a racing 962 to 21 victories and raved about how wonderful a car it actually was. So there.

It cost Mr Schlaepfer $2 million to build. And now you can stick it on your drive for just $500,000. Do it.