Despite Porsche's initial denial of the 9R3's existence rumours circulated about its cancellation including: the engineers were diverted to the Porsche Cayenne SUV project; to avoid competing with its Audi R8 stablemate which won the 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans; insufficient competition after the withdrawal of BMW, Toyota, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz. The engine from the car was used in the Porsche Carrera GT concept car and was detuned for the production version.