The Schuppan 962CR was a vehicle built and designed in the early 1990's by the Legendary Australian racecar driver Vern Schuppan. The 962CR is based on the dominant Le Mans-winning Porsche 962 race car of which Schuppan raced and owned with his own team.By 1989 many 962's were around but Porsche made the decision to stop manufacturing the chassis.
The legend, Vern Schuppen thought there might be an opportunity to upgrade the aluminium tub to the 'new' carbon fibre material. The racing composite versions of the 962C raced at spa in 1989, Japan and Daytona and Le Mans in 1990/91 under the Team Schuppen banner.The 962CR was a mid-engine,rear-wheel drive vehicle powering the car is a 3.3-litre Type-935 Flat-6 featuring twin KKK turbochargers that gave 600 hp.
This was mated to a five-speed manual transmission. This unit was borrowed nearly directly from the standard Porsche 962 unit used in the North American IMSA GT Championship with a slight decrease in displacement. The car's top speed is 230 mph with a 0–60 mph acceleration time of 3.5 seconds.
The chassis and body were built entirely by Schuppan, although it featured design elements from the 962 race car. Assembly took place at the VSL 60,000 ft² race and production facility in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Funding was provided by Japanese investors who supported Schuppan's race team that ran in the all Japan Sports Prototype Championship- ART Corporation.
At just over US$1.5 million new in the early 90's , the Schuppan 962CR is among the most expensive new vehicles ever sold . Rumours circulated for several years that the 962CR was sold new for US$2.5 million but this rumour was eventually dispelled by author and Porsche enthusiast Karl Ludvigsen who listed a price of ¥195 000 000.
By 1992 3 prototype's were built and the first production batch of 25 out of 50 cars were ready to roll. However before this could proceed, ART sport pulled the financial plug and their project ground to a holt. The timing was bad all round; the supercar market moved into decline, which drove the Art Sport decision -because the project faltered, the model could not be homologated for Le Mans. This, coupled with the high cost of the car's construction and a worldwide economic recession, forced Schuppan to declare bankruptcy, folding not only his car company but his race team as well.
