The Carrera GT's development can be traced back to a Porsche successor to the 911 GT1-98 and LMP1-98 racing cars that had ended after the 1998, partially due to FIA and ACO rule changes. Porsche at the time had planned on a new Le Mans prototype for 1999. The car, initially destined to continue using a turbocharged flat-6 was later redesigned to use a new V10 engine, pushing the project back to planned competition in 2000. The V10 engine was a unit secretly built by Porsche for the Footwork Formula One team in 1992, but later shelved. The engine was resurrected for the Le Mans prototype and increased in size to 5.5 litres. Unfortunately the project was cancelled shortly before the first car could be completed in the middle of 1999, mostly due to Porsche's wish to build the Cayenne SUV with involvement from Volkswagen and Audi, thus requiring engineering expertise to be pulled from the motorsports division. It was also speculated that VW-Audi chairman Ferdinand Piëch wanted Audi's new Le mans Prototype, the Audi R8 to not face competition from Porsche in 2000.
Porsche did however keep part of the project alive by using the 5.7L V10 from the prototype in a concept car shown at the 2000 Geneva Motor Show, mainly in an attempt to draw attention to their display. Surprising interest in the vehicle and an influx of revenue being provided by the Cayenne helped Porsche decide to make use of the car, and development started on a road-legal version that would be produced in small numbers at Porsche's new manufacturing facility in Leipzig. Porsche started a production run of Carrera GTs in 2004, shipping the units with an MSRP of $440,000 USD and a dealer invoice price of approximately $414,800 USD. In addition, the delivery charge could be as much as $15,000 USD. The first Carrera GT went on sale in the US on Jan 31, 2004.
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