AT THE END of the 1980s, the decade of big spenders, the idea of a supercar was moving into a new dimension. The Jaguar XJ220, the McLaren F1 and Bugatti EB110 were in preparation and promised to bring race-car performance to the road. That raised the inevitable question: why not make a contemporary race car street-legal?
Take a Group C sports-racer, fit catalytic converters and silencers, change the engine control unit, add licence plates and (a few) creature comforts and you could have a spectacular road car. That was the thinking that led to the Schuppan-Porsches that flowered for a short time from 1991.
Vern Schuppan – 1983 Le Mans winner for Porsche – ran a highly professional endurance racing team that developed its own carbonfibre chassis and a host of other components for the Porsche 962. As well as competing at Le Mans with Japanese sponsorship, Team Schuppan had been very successful in Japanese sports car racing. In 1988 he was approached by Kosho, which built hotels and golf courses, with the idea of creating a series of street-legal 962 Le Mans cars. Vern’s team, which included F1 designers Ralph Bellamy and Martin Read, plus Ray Borrett, previously head of prototype production at GM Holden, set to
