We get it. The shape of the 911 is an icon on par with that of the Coke bottle and Betty Boop. But really? Is there no end to the amount people are prepared to pay to really make one of these shapes their own? There are over a million potential used factory 911s to choose from, and yet the choosy 911 fetishist is presented a choice of myriad manufacturers and tuners prepared to refresh, restomod, or utterly reimagine a 911. Now the factory is even getting in on the action. Here are four options we spotted during Monterey Car Week, plus something different for the 1-percenter who wants Porsche mechanicals without the classic shape.
Mild: Gunther Werks 400R—$525,000 (+donor 993-series 911)
Gunther Werks unveiled its prototype at The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering, in 2017, and this year the display included a recently completed car built for a European customer, alongside a complete body shell in naked high-gloss carbon fiber. Gunther receives and disassembles the donor 911—Carrera 2 coupes only, please, no C4s, Turbos, cabrios, or targas. The unibody structure and engine block are retained, but most other functional parts are sold off. Gunther devised a new suspension that “squares” the front and rear track widths and employs three-way adjustable coil-over shocks with separate reservoirs. The new control arms are highly adjustable, as well. The custom bodywork is designed to envelop the wider (295 front/335 rear) rolling stock. The 3.6-liter block gets a 4.0-liter crank from a water-cooled engine, plus new pistons, cylinders, heads, cams, etc. The finished piece revs to 8,000 rpm and produces a relatively tame 420 hp and 330 lb-ft. Compression is 11:1, and the induction and injection systems are custom, controlled by a MoTeC engine-control unit. Gearbox ratios are all custom tailored to the new engine, and a single-mass clutch and a strengthened limited-slip differential are included in the deal. The interior is trimmed in carbon fiber galore (looking as if it employs a carbon monocoque, which it doesn’t), with custom Gunther Werks-produced seats, dash, etc. Gunther Werks promises to build just 25 of these remastered 993s, each in a different color. This one is Chelsea Gray (as indicated on the sill plate).
Wild: Singer DLS—$1,800,000 (+donor 964-series 911)
All of Singer’s 964-era cars are ostensibly bespoke one-offs. For this one, the client requested the ultimate in a lightweight, highly dynamic car, thus launching the Dynamics and Lightweighting Study (DLS). The project involved collaboration with the race-car builders at Williams Advanced Engineering, who helped build what Singer is touting as “the world’s most advanced air-cooled Porsche 911 engine.” Other technical partners like Bosch helped bring other cutting-edge technologies like modern stability control offering driver-selectable levels of assistance. Singer, Williams, and Bosch collaborated closely to ensure that all sensors and required communications networks were integrated into the vehicle from the get-go. The 4.0-liter four-cam 24-valve engine produces 500 hp at 9,000 rpm. The six-speed transaxle is completely bespoke and helps move the engine forward in the car for better weight distribution. On the lightweighting front, the entire body is carbon fiber, and though it looks 964-ish, the entire surface has reportedly been tweaked to optimize for aerodynamics. Curb weight is said to be just over 2,200 pounds. Singer promises to make no more than 75 custom 911s, of which this one marks round about 60. So hurry up and commission your dream 911 soon if you want Singer to do it.
Just Right: Ruf CTR—$750,000
Ruf Automobile GmBH of Pfaffenhausen, Germany, has been tuning, revising, and reimagining Porsches since 1939. One of the most iconic models it produced as a vehicle manufacturer was the CTR (Group C, Turbo Ruf) of 1987, best known as Yellowbird. Last year in Geneva it unveiled an homage CTR, in yellow, that rides on a completely custom aluminum race-bred space-frame chassis and carbon-fiber tub suspended by control arms with pushrod-actuated coil-over shock units at all four corners. The wheelbase is 2.8 inches longer than the original Yellowbird’s. Power comes from a Ruf-designed and -built dry-sump water-cooled 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine inspired by the one in the original Yellowbird. The new engine produces 700 hp and 649 lb-ft. With a curb weight of less than 2,800 pounds, that’s said to be sufficient to hit 60 mph in less than 3.5 seconds on the way to a 223-mph top speed. Ruf plans to build just 30 examples of this 30th-anniversary tribute car, not including the prototype Geneva car. Since Geneva, this prototype has shed its mostly black interior with yellow plaid seat inserts for a much more vibrant yellow leather design that somehow seems much more “California.”
The Factory Spoiler: Project Gold—(Up for auction on Sept 27)
Perhaps not to be outdone by everybody remastering old 911s, Porsche Classic has undertaken a 1.5-year project to reimagine the 993-generation Porsche Turbo as a way of celebrating the brand’s upcoming anniversary—70 years of Porsche sports cars. An original 993 body shell was completely stripped and treated to a full factory repaint, including all rust-prevention steps, in Golden Yellow Metallic, from the 2018 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series. The interior is finished in black with Golden Yellow details. Power comes from a brand-new 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine developing 450 hp, giving it authentic 993-generation Turbo S performance. To get your hands on this one-off factory special (which cannot be licensed for road use, by the way), you’ll have to bid for it in an auction of 70 special Porsches that will be conducted by RM Sotheby’s at the Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta on October 27, 2018. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Ferry Porsche Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to education, social issues, and youth development established earlier this year to mark the “70 years of Porsche sports cars” celebrations.
The Ruf Non-11: W Motors Fenyr SuperSport—$1,600,000
If you’re among the many who view all 911s and the various offerings that ape the classic 911 look as a bit too “common” (more than 1 million served!), you can hide your Porsche-esque underpinnings beneath completely unique supercar bodywork featuring rear-hinged suicide doors. W Motors hails from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and has been in business since 2012. Its latest creation is this Fenyr SuperSport, with an exotic interior and exterior underpinned by a 100-percent Ruf chassis and powertrain. The chassis is similar to that of the abovementioned CTR, but the powertrain is a mid-rear-mounted Ruf-developed 3.8-liter twin-turbo flat-six tuned to produce 800 hp and 722 lb-ft. That prodigious twist gets routed through a Ruf-Porsche-spec seven-speed twin-clutch PDK transaxle, and is said to enable a 0–60 blast of 2.8 seconds and a 245-mph top speed. Ruf delivers the rolling chassis to a facility in Milan where the bodywork is installed and trimmed. Surely it’s easier to talk yourself into an unknown Middle Eastern car brand knowing that a well-established German brand has handled all the mechanical bits, right?
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