Porsche RS Spyder  
Chassis : 9R6.706
Competition Group : LMP2
Constructed For : CET Solaroli Motorports
Engine Specification : MR6 90º V8 / 3,397 cc Naturally Aspirated


The Porsche RS Spyder 9R6.706, is a customer chassis produced for the 2007 season and delivered to CET Solaroli Motorsports, a private racing team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The team’s owner, Al Solaroli (a longtime Porsche racer) was president of Combustion Engine Technology (CET).

CET Solaroli Motorsport announced that it would be joining the ALMS later in the 2007 season, fielding two RS Spyders and a single 997 RSR, before entering ALMS for a full season effort in 2008. The driver roster hired for the first RS Spyder (#706) was formed by JJ Lehto and Johnny Herbert (drivers names were applied on the car for the official photoshoot, see below).

The first contacts between Porsche and Al Solaroli took place in July 2006 before continuing at Petit Le Mans. The deal will come later in Monterey. The announced budget for the program was in the order of $ 50 million ...
In the end the team was forced to change their plans as Al Solaroli vanished. The team never entered ALMS, #706 never raced and the second car (#707) was never delivered to the team.

Al Solaroli purported to be the owner of patents for technology related to engine technology for race cars, related to a $1.5 million personal line of credit he borrowed from Onebanc (now First National Bank) in 2007. In early 2007, Solaroli was introduced to a Senior Vice President at Onebanc by a friend who was also Onebanc customer. As a result of the introduction, Solaroli met with the Onebanc Senior Vice President in Jacksonville, Florida, where Solaroli  lived and worked. Al Solaroli requested a $1,500,000 loan from Onebanc in April 2007, stating that his cash flow was tied up at the time. As a result of Solaroli’s personal written financial statement submitted to Onebanc, which listed his net worth as $169,473,680, the bank made a $1,500,000 line of credit available to the defendant to be repaid in one year.
Immediately after receiving the approval of his loan application, Solaroli instructed the Onebanc Senior Vice President to wire $120,000 to a bank account in Florida that Solaroli controlled, in the name of CET Racing. Solaroli eventually received all $1,500,000, but never made a payment on any of the money he received from the line of credit. Al Solaroli was later arrested by FBI and charged of money laundering, Solaroli admitted under oath that the financial statement he submitted to Onebanc was false.

During a few years the exact location of the 9R6.706 (and his engine ...) was a mystery. The car was aquired, only in 2014, by a collector of Porsche racing cars. During this ownership, the car has seen little track time, aside from private sessions and attened two historic events at Laguna Seca (Rennsport Reunion V in 2015 and Monterey Motorsports Reunion in 2016).
During Rennsport Reunion V in 2015, 9R6.706 was decorated with Iconic Sunoco livery and scheme and was driven by David Donohue, son of famous Porsche race Mark Donohue. >>> Read >>> RACER article from Marshall Pruett.

9R6.706 was offered to auction in 2018 by Gooding & Company at Pebble Beach (24-25 August) as lot number 44. 9R6.706 was presented in bare carbon livery with white partners logos reproducing the livery used by Porsche for the RS Spyder Evo official presentation (more appealing than the orignial CET livery ...).
9R6.706 was sold for $4,510,000. Auction result here

Text by S.G / Photos DR & Porsche AG